Stitch and the Story Behind High Roller

Four gold Xs sit near the hem of a black shirt. They are easy to miss beside the bright outline of a High Roller paddle. Look closer, though, and that small sewn mark opens a different way into the collection: product, community, mission, artist. Four ideas, held together by a thread.

Stitch is the artist behind Dope. His interest in product design and textiles connects the things you can hold with the people who carry them. High Roller began with a very particular picture in his imagination. The collection grew as he found ways to make that picture tangible.

A memory with a gold outline

Before the paddle came a remembered racquet. After competitive baseball and racquetball, the look of a metallic gold finish racquet stayed with Stitch: a dark face, a bright perimeter, light changing as the object moved.

When he imagined his own pickleball paddle, that contrast returned. The gold would have a precise place around the edge. The face would give it a dark backdrop. It was a visual idea worth pursuing through the less glamorous work of getting a product made.

A place becomes a palette

Las Vegas gave High Roller its name and atmosphere. Visits with his best friend brought together black, gold, reflected light and the familiar shapes of playing cards. Those memories found their way into the paddle, then into the objects around it.

The collection also holds a quieter reference to the cofounders’ shared baseball history in its diamond formation and end cap. Vegas supplies the flash; a personal history gives the smaller marks something to carry.

The part a finished photo cannot show

The finished outline looks simple. Making it took repeated work with manufacturers, different materials and finishes, and two years of development. Stitch kept working toward the appearance he had imagined rather than releasing a version he was unhappy with. By 2024, he had a paddle he was proud to put into someone else’s hand.

The metallic gold finish describes the color and reflection around the perimeter. The edge itself is not metal. That narrow strip is where the collection’s original visual idea becomes easiest to recognize.

Four stitches and a wider world

The same thinking travels through different materials: a pattern inside the case, gold trim on a towel, a mark pressed into leather, embroidery close to a shirt hem. Stitch’s name comes from that wish to connect separate pieces. The four-X mark brings product, community, mission and artist into one small signature.

High Roller eventually reached a much larger screen with Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara in Michelob ULTRA’s 2025 Super Bowl campaign. Our original 2025 article and extended commercial preserve that chapter.

The next chapter is smaller again: a piece in your bag, a game with a friend, someone noticing a detail you chose. Meet Stitch for the full artist story, or follow the gold outline through the High Roller design.