On Ava Vickers’ seventh birthday, her mom gifted her a metal dress form. She draped fabrics on the mannequin for hours, creating dresses with her mom.
Vickers began experimenting with clothing when she could dress herself. She would pair polka dots with stripes and play around with different outfits. But that birthday was the turning point.
“I've always loved clothes,” Vickers said. “But I feel like when I had that moment when I was 7 with my mom is when I truly fell in love with, like, the creating part of fashion and actually being a part of making it.”
Almost 15 years later, Vickers is still following that passion.
Ava Vickers plays with the metal dress form she got for her seventh birthday. Vickers would drape fabrics on the form for hours with her mom.
The Indiana volleyball junior middle blocker launched her own clothing brand, Project You, in June 2025. Vickers, her teammates and coaches wear the sweatshirts before games and to practices, which she posts on her Instagram stories to promote the brand. It was a childhood dream of hers, but it didn’t come to fruition until she was hit with adversity.
Before college, Vickers never sustained any major injuries. But that changed during her sophomore season in 2024.
The Fishers, Indiana, native played through a shoulder injury during part of the 2024 volleyball season, which she had surgery for at the conclusion of the year.
Vickers wanted to find another passion to tap into to take her mind off not being able to play. Creativity ended up being that outlet. Not being able to participate was difficult for Vickers, she said, but the setback became the chance to do something she’d dreamed of.
“It's one of those things where like, everything happens for a reason,” Vickers said. “And as much as the whole situation sucks with injury, I don't know if Project You, my clothing brand, would even be where it is today, without going through that.”
Vickers sells hoodies and crewneck sweatshirts on the brand’s website. Each piece dons the phrase “You are the greatest project you will ever work on.” The colors range from blues and pinks to neutrals, like grey and black. The crewnecks are priced at $45, while the hoodies are $55.
The front of a Project You sweatshirt is photographed. Ava Vickers designed the sweatshirt with the phrase "You are the greatest project you will ever work on."
The quote comes from a piece of advice Vickers’ high school club volleyball coach gave her after she struggled with negative self-talk. It’s a conversation that has stuck with her and become a quote she tries to live by daily.
Vickers’ time away from volleyball didn’t stop with her shoulder surgery in 2024. In August 2025, Vickers had emergency appendix surgery.
She was sidelined through the beginning of the 2025 volleyball season and made her season debut against USC and UCLA in early October. In those matches, Vickers recorded five kills and seven blocks. However, another shoulder surgery quickly followed those matches, and Vickers was again forced to watch her teammates compete from the bench.
“The injury has allowed her to kind of take a step back and try to find other aspects of her life,” Indiana volleyball junior setter Luca Fickell said. “Like realizing that you're more than just a volleyball player, which I think is important for everyone, whether they're playing or not.”
Fickell said Vickers' ability to find other passions outside volleyball has bled into the whole team, inspiring her teammates to find out who they are and what they love outside of volleyball.
Vickers started another project during the summer of 2025, but this time, it was a collaboration.
Vickers co-designed a vintage IU jacket with Iman Tucker, one of the DJs at IU athletic events. It’s a crimson-washed denim jacket, with five pockets featuring the years Indiana men’s basketball won the national championship.
The front of a crimson-washed denim jacket is photographed. The jacket features five pockets, one for each year Indiana men's basketball won national championships.
The back of a crimson-washed denim jacket is photographed. Ava Vickers and Iman Tucker collaborated to design the jacket.
The jacket is sold in stores across campus — including merchandise stores in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and the Indiana Memorial Union — and was the first time Vickers saw the entire process of designing, manufacturing and selling, which Tucker helped her figure out.
Vickers and Tucker were first connected through their love of music. Tucker was DJing at IU athletic events, while Vickers practiced with her own DJ controller. And from there, their friendship started to grow.
When Tucker, who owns a faith-based clothing brand of his own called Believe Brand Co., started forming the idea for an IU piece of clothing, he wanted to get a student athlete involved in the process. Vickers was the first person who came to mind.
They started working on the jacket during the summer of 2025, when Vickers’ schedule had slowed down. And from the start, Vickers made the process smooth.
“The collaboration was super easy because she was open to everything,” Tucker said. “But she was also very honest, too, of things she liked, or she didn't like, so it left no guessing on the table.”
Tucker said Vickers was instrumental in making sure the piece would be relevant for all types of people — alumni, students, fans. Her approach was thoughtful and business-minded, yet creative and detail-oriented.
"Ava has such a humble heart about her,” Tucker said. “She's always open to feedback, and she's always asking for feedback. She's never really married to ideas. She's more so married to the idea of just doing things and making an impact.”
Vickers took that open mindset into creating her own business and design in general. She wanted to learn and grow, but she knew that wouldn’t happen without making mistakes.
Once she made that mindset shift, she said the way she went about life started to change. She’s more willing to put herself in positions where she might fail, because if she didn’t, there could be missed chances.
“You never know what opportunities you might miss out on unless you just go for it,” Vickers said. “And there's so many things that, this past like two years, I've truly accomplished because I put myself in those uncomfortable situations.”
Tucker said that mindset and willingness to do new things, even though they might be difficult, is what sets Vickers apart from a lot of other creators. Throughout the process of starting her own brand and co-designing the IU jacket, Tucker said Vickers has taken more risk, which at an early age gives her more repetitions to grow.
“She's super adaptable, but she's also highly professional, too,” Tucker said. “And just even her maturity as a junior in college, and her leadership capabilities, it seems like it's all in a melting pot of creating this concoction that, really, she's gonna be successful, no matter what she does.”
Savannah Slone covers Indiana volleyball and women’s basketball for the Indiana Daily Student. You can follow her at @srslone06 on X and contact her via email at srslone@iu.edu.
