A few days before Taylor Swift's Eras Tour shows in New Orleans, the Big Shiny Balls website crashed.
Jules called Shawn, assuming something had gone wrong with the site. Shawn, on site at the Superdome, had a different explanation. The team was hanging giant friendship bracelets across the side of the stadium, and anyone driving past on the highway could see something enormous taking shape. News crews were covering it. Fans were searching for who made it, and the traffic was more than the site could handle.
From sketch to stadium in under a month
The bracelets went from a hand-drawn sketch to full installation in under a month, a very tight timeline for a project of that size. "Not having been a 'Swiftie' myself," Shawn admits, "I didn't realize the sheer magnitude of the following."
Four bracelets hung outside the Superdome for Taylor Swift's three sold-out nights, each stretching 140 feet and spelling out "Taylor Swift The Eras Tour", with every letter a circle seven feet across.
How it went up
The Superdome's head of marketing reached out first. Shawn built 3D models and worked out a size and scale that would fit the side of the stadium, then Taylor's team approved the design and colors before anything went into production.
The finished bracelets arrived outside the stadium on a Wednesday, and by Thursday they were strapped to the walls. "I've never strapped anything to the side of a stadium before," Shawn told USA Today. "So there were some learning curves." Air blowers along the edges keep the bracelets taut.
Then came the best part. "That's the fun part for us," he said, "to watch people take pictures and make it fun, the Instagram moment and the selfies and things like that."
Make your own
Friendship bracelets have become a fan favorite. Our Big Inflatable Friendship Bracelet spells out the name or message of your choice, giant-sized.
