Our Story
From High School Hobby to a 5th-Grade Basketball Milestone 🏆
If you asked Justin back in high school — when he was setting up tables as a dealer at local card shows — he'd tell you he just loved the hobby. Life got busy and the collection went into boxes for a while, but the passion for collecting came full circle in 2021 when he picked it back up with his son, Griffin. Today, the two of them love spending weekends checking out local card shops and shows together.
The real spark for Sports Card Maker came at the end of Griffin's 5th-grade basketball season. To celebrate the team's great year, Justin used his tech background to create custom digital trading cards for every kid on the roster, styled just like real pro cards with their photos, stats, and positions.
Yes, that's us — made with our own card maker.
He texted the digital cards to the other parents on the team, and the reaction was immediate and incredible. Moms, dads, and grandparents were texting back asking how to make more, how they could share them with family, and how to get them printed. Right then, we realized we had something special that other sports families would love.
Our Mission
"Enable kids and adults to have stunning-quality, real-looking digital and physical trading cards to create and trade just like pro cards — giving parents cooler sports pics in less time and for less money."
Meet the Team
We're a family business that blends our absolute favorite things: technology, creativity, sports, trading cards, and working with the awesome kids and families in the sports community.
Justin — Founder & Tech
Justin has spent over 25 years building software and technology at scale. He brings a career's worth of experience from technology leadership roles at companies like Sony, Meta, and UnitedHealthcare, and currently serves as a VP of Music Strategy & Intelligence. He brought that same obsession with building secure, polished, and seamless digital experiences to Sports Card Maker, designing everything from the secure backend database to the fun user interface.
Jelena — Business & Community
Jelena runs the business side of things and connects us directly to the youth sports world. She collaborates with team parents, coaches, and league coordinators to understand what they actually need from an app like this. If a feature on our site feels like it was tailor-made for a busy sports family, it's usually because Jelena championed it.
Griffin — Sports Card Collector & Athlete 🎴
Griffin and his youth basketball team were the inspiration for Sports Card Maker.
We're a small team and we read every message.
team@sportscardmaker.com