SAN ANTONIO — When Kiqé Sanchez’s sewing machine is thumping, he’s likely creating a one-of-one San Antonio Spurs item.
“We are very San Antonio, why don’t we have a Spurs tortilla warmer?” Sanchez said while holding a Spurs tortilla warmer. “I designed a baguette bag and it’s literally made of Spurs jerseys, Spurs shirts, random stuff.”
Sanchez is known to recycle items and turn them into aprons, jerseys and duffel bags. He says the ideas have been limitless upon Victor “Wemby” Wembanyama’s arrival.
“Everybody’s seen Wemby. It don’t matter whether if you are a fan or not, you’ve seen him before,” Sanchez said. “You know who he is, and there’s more eyes, now there’s more presence so people are more engulfed to like ‘I want to see this guy.’”
Wembanyama welcomes the global spotlight, which is contrary to Spurs stars of the past. He can’t help it standing at 7 feet 4 inches tall.
This historic 5-0 start to the season is giving Spurs fans something to root for.
“It’s amazing that something as simple as a basketball game, everybody in the city or anywhere can connect with it,” Sanchez said.
As Wembanyama is creating a winning culture in San Antonio, his presence is creating opportunities for muralists like Bernardo Moreno, Mikey Sanchez and JC Gomez-Molina.
They collaborated on a mural where Wemby is taking a selfie and the Millennium Falcon from “Star Wars” is flying behind him. At the bottom of the mural is his Olympic silver medal and his Rookie of the Year award.
“It’s amazing everybody loves this one, they come and take selfies with him,” Gomez-Molina said.
Mikey Sanchez says it’s pretty life changing.
“It’s crazy how one person can really impact the whole city,” Mikey Sanchez said.
Wembanyama signed Mikey Sanchez’s mural of the French star two years ago and he attended Wemby’s NBA Rookie of the Year ceremony.
Mikey Sanchez says those opportunities have opened more doors.
“More than 20 businesses have reached out to me and said, ‘whenever you want to paint something on our business, you are more than welcome to,’” Mikey Sanchez said.
Kiqé Sanchez partnered with the Spurs and Frost Bank to create a T-shirt.
“It was inspired by the city icons and then we incorporated a lot of basketball courts that came out recently, so we went back to the Hemisfair Arena,” Kiqé Sanchez said.
Two years ago, it was reported that Wemby would have a $400 million impact to San Antonio’s economy. However, these artists say it might be even more as Wemby’s star ascends into another stratosphere.
“The MVP one (mural) we are going to have to set it up somewhere,” Gomez-Molina said looking at the current Wemby mural.