It’s the end of an era. The former first family of the United States, the Obamas, have left the White House after eight years; and a Lane alum, Joe Robinson, is doing his part to celebrate them.

Robinson, better known as JoeFreshgoods, runs Chicago streetwear brands Fat Tiger Workshop and Don’t Be Mad (previously Dope Boy Magic). Robinson graduated from Lane in 2005. On Jan. 21 he released the Thank You Obama collection, his tribute to the Obama family.

The collection features four shirts, a hoodie, and a basketball jersey, many of them commemorating important events in the Obama’s lives. One shirt in the collection features Barack and Michelle’s wedding date, while another shows Michelle’s Whitney Young graduation year.

The focus of the project is the positivity the Obamas brought to the United States.

“With this project I wanted to timestamp a period in my life where I felt like I can do whatever I wanted to do and be whatever I wanted to be,” Robinson wrote on the Thank You Obama website. “The night Obama won his first term gave me so much hope.”

The hope Robinson mentioned has resonated within students at Lane. “I think it helps a lot of kids from Chicago see what you can do,” D’yontae Luster, Div. 775, said. “[Obama] put a lot of people on to ‘Oh you can do more than just rap, you feel me, [or] play basketball. You can actually be the president, you can join the Senate, you can do big things.’ He empowered everybody.”

The collection gave Fat Tiger Workshop a significant boost in popularity after being featured in GQ, Billboard, and various other news sites. The collection’s “Malia shirt” was even worn on “Desus & Mero,” a talk show on the network Viceland.

Vic Lloyd, a cofounder of Fat Tiger Workshop, said, “There is definitely a spike in attention. People are paying a lot of attention to the things we have going on now.”

One of Robinson’s goals is to put Chicago’s streetwear scene on the map. “The Chicago thing is what made it make sense,” Lloyd said.

The Obama family’s connection to Chicago is what made it personal. “Obama was a black man from the southside, that could easily be someone I know,” Kyra Young, Div. 756, said.

Anyone could have made the collection, Lloyd said; it was just about timing.

The Thank You Obama collection is just one example of Robinson’s perfect timing. Other collections by Robinson include “Yeezy 2020” shirts after Kanye West announced his potential 2020 presidential run and his 2017 Cubs World Series gear that was released quickly after the Cubs won game seven.

Robinson takes success and/or tragedy into account when he starts a collection.  “Sometimes when somebody passes away, when something crazy happens, I be like, Nobody else going do it, lemme do it ’cause I’m going to do it correctly,” Robinson told Fader magazine.

The collection was modeled by Chance The Rapper, a strong supporter of the Obamas, and a longtime friend and supporter of Robinson and all of Fat Tiger’s collections. After Chance tweeted pictures of himself wearing the line, many news sites were quick to release articles detailing the collection. Some articles such as Billboard incorrectly gave Chance credit for the creation of the line.

“Sometimes I look at myself as the CNN of clothing,” Robinson said in an interview with Fader magazine.