A graphic designer who has worked with Deion Sanders since 2011 is suing the Colorado Buffaloes head coach, alleging that Sanders and his team made false promises to convince him to sign away the rights to two logos built around Sanders’ personal brand. Alan Tipp claims he has never been compensated for the designs, known as “P2IME” and “TRUTH,” both of which weave Sanders’ old jersey number, 21, into the stylized lettering.
Tipp filed his complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska in January 2025, according to The Denver Post. The lawsuit names Sanders, SMAC Entertainment, talent manager Sam Morini, and Prime Time Enterprises as defendants, and per Pro Football Network, Tipp is seeking damages in excess of $75,000 along with pre- and post-judgment interest and legal costs, citing copyright and trademark infringement as well as unfair competition.
Tipp, who runs the Omaha-based design firm ATIPPICAL, first connected with Sanders around November 2011 after Sanders discovered his graphic design work and hired him to develop custom branding and product concepts, according to Yardbarker. That relationship stretched on for over a decade before souring, the Denver Post reports, with Tipp saying he believes he owns the logos and should be given credit for them.
Promises Tipp Says Never Materialized
According to the Denver Post, Tipp gave up his rights to the logos in December 2022 after Sanders and Morini allegedly made a series of verbal commitments to advance his career. Those promises reportedly included bringing Tipp onto Sanders’ marketing and branding team, connecting him with Nike to develop Sanders-branded clothing and shoes, letting him educate University of Colorado Boulder football players on personal branding, and hiring him to create a line of branded sunglasses.
Tipp alleges that Sanders and Morini never intended to fulfill their end of the bargain, and that Sanders’ representatives began avoiding him soon after the agreement was signed. Attorney Heather Voegele, representing Tipp, said the career-advancement promises were made verbally and are absent from the signed work-for-hire agreement, the Denver Post reports. Sanders did, at times, tag Tipp’s account in social media posts, but Tipp says Sanders ultimately failed to meet the career advancement obligations he was allegedly promised.
That gap between spoken assurances and the written contract sits at the center of the case. Under federal copyright law, a commissioned work by an independent contractor only qualifies as a work made for hire if there is an explicit written instrument signed by both parties, according to Crown LLP. If a commissioned work fails that statutory test, ownership can default back to the original creator unless it was explicitly assigned in writing — a legal backdrop that helps explain why Tipp is challenging a contract he already signed.
Sunglasses Line Points to What Was at Stake
The commercial value tied up in Sanders’ brand became clear in September 2023, when the “Coach Prime” sunglasses line launched with Blenders Eyewear, released, according to the complaint, without Tipp’s involvement despite Morini’s earlier promise to hire him for exactly that project. The sunglasses, which prominently feature the “PRIME 21” logo on the temples, generated $1.2 million in sales on the first day and nearly $5 million in presales within three days, according to FOX 5 DC. Presales reportedly spiked after a public dispute between Sanders and Colorado State head coach Jay Norvell over sunglasses-wearing during interviews.
SMAC Entertainment, named as a co-defendant, manages Sanders’ business ventures and was co-founded by CEO Constance Schwartz-Morini and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, according to Essentially Sports. Sam Morini serves as a talent manager at the firm. Michael Kump, an attorney representing Sanders and his team, declined to comment on the lawsuit, the Denver Post reports.
Case Timeline and Sanders’ Other Legal Fights
The case is ongoing and currently in the discovery process, with a status conference scheduled for October, per the Denver Post. Sanders had been scheduled to sit for a deposition on July 31, though the outcome of that scheduled testimony is not detailed in available reporting.
The lawsuit lands amid a stretch of overlapping legal headaches for Sanders as the 2026 college football season opens. On August 19, Sanders’ attorney Harvey Steinberg accepted service of a subpoena commanding the coach to testify in Denver during his son Shilo Sanders’ $11.89 million bankruptcy trial, which begins August 31, according to USA Today. That bankruptcy proceeding is a separate legal matter stemming from a default judgment awarded to a former high school security guard injured in 2015.
Steinberg has since filed a motion to quash the subpoena. A Boulder County sheriff's deputy had earlier attempted to serve Sanders in person on August 11 during an open Colorado Buffaloes practice at Fountain-Fort Carson Stadium in Fountain, Colorado, before service was ultimately completed via email through his legal counsel, the same outlet reports. Sanders’ legal team has requested that he be allowed to testify virtually in the bankruptcy case to avoid conflicting with Colorado’s season-opening game against Georgia Tech in early September, according to Yardbarker.
Sanders became the highest-paid head coach in the Big 12 Conference after Colorado approved a $54 million contract extension through 2029, as Hoodline previously reported. As the designer’s lawsuit proceeds through discovery alongside his son’s bankruptcy fight, Sanders now faces a preseason defined as much by courtrooms as by fall camp.
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