— A professional football player-turned-NASA astronaut-turned author and advocate for science education has taken yet another turn: designing t-shirts to promote world peace.

Leland Melvin, who launched twice into space after injuries prevented him from playing as a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions and then Dallas Cowboys, has now collaborated with two commercial astronauts to create shirts for Uniqlo's "Peace For All" charity campaign.

"Honored to work with astronauts Sian Proctor and Gary Lai to design a Uniqlo 'Peace For All' tee as Club for the Future ambassadors," wrote Melvin in a social media post, referencing the not-for-profit organization founded by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin spaceflight company.

"When I was young my mother told me we are all our sisters and brothers keepers. The Uniqlo 'Peace For All' campaign since 2022 has sold over 8 million tees and donated over $16 million USD ([as of] July 2025) to organizations that do the work."

According to Uniqlo, a Japan-based casual wear retailer with stores worldwide, its parent company is evenly donating the net proceeds from the "Peace For All" t-shirt sales to UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), Save the Children Japan and Plan International, Inc.

In addition to the astronauts, "Peace For All" t-shirt creators have included tennis player Roger Federer, actor Adam Scott ("Parks and Recreation," "Severance"), Peanuts (featuring Snoopy and the gang from Charles Schulz' classic comic strip) and the late Spanish painter Pablo Picasso (through his administration).

Melvin, Proctor and Lai developed two designs, including one on a black shirt with an illustration of the International Space Station high above a rainbow-hued Earth.

"The black tee embodies our feelings of our home planet, Earth light and people working from around the world doing really hard things together in space as one human family," said Melvin.

The other t-shirt uses a photo of the moon over Earth's blue and white horizon.

"The white tee print is of a picture I took in space that I identified with the air we breathe," he said. "The blue life support system is all we have."

Both designs include the Peace For All, Club For the Future and Space4All logotypes along the neckline on the shirt's back. They retail for $24.90 each and are available from the Uniqlo website.

Melvin's spaceflights, STS-122 in 2008 and STS-129 in 2009, were both aboard NASA's now-retired space shuttle Atlantis. Proctor became the first female commercial spaceship pilot after she won a competition to join the privately-funded Inspiration4 mission aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule in 2021.

Lai flew into space in 2022 as a passenger on Blue Origin's 20th flight of the New Shepard, a suborbital vehicle he developed as the company's chief architect.

To help launch the new designs, Melvin recently joined Uniqlo at its 5th Avenue flagship store in New York City. The event included 60 students from local youth organizations hearing from the astronaut about his career. They also took part in Club for the Future's Postcards to Space program, writing messages and dreams that will be launched on board a New Shepard mission and then returned to them stamped "flown in space."

"It always inspires me to see the infinite possibilities of our youth working together for our future and creating solutions to help our civilization flourish," said Melvin in a statement. "The 'Peace For All' project with Uniqlo and Club for the Future helps kids see that potential."