Stylish fan outfits take center stage. The NFL still has an untapped market

It started out as a fun project. White jumpsuit featuring Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Jake Browning’s number and initials.

Taylor Damron made the dress for her cousin, Stephanie Niles, Browning’s girlfriend, to wear during the Jan. 7 game against the Cleveland Browns. The outfit then went viral.

“The next day, I woke up and the world fell in my lap,” Damron, 29, said.

Damron’s designs are an instant hit online, and that’s just one story of how female fan clothing has been thrust into the spotlight. Days later, Taylor Swift donated a red down jacket with her boyfriend and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce during a game against the Miami Dolphins. Within a month, the jacket’s designer, Kristin Juszczyk, secured a licensing deal with the NFL.

These meteoric success stories illustrate the potential of the women’s sportswear market that blends fashion and fan culture. They also highlight how difficult it is for smaller independent creators to break into the industry — especially Black designers who popularized and innovated sportswear as women’s clothing two decades ago.

Before Swift brought Juszczyk’s clothing to new attention, the 29-year-old designer transformed jerseys into higher-fashion pieces (corsets) while attending San Francisco 49ers games to support herself , suits, skirts), thus gaining a following online. her husband, linebacker Kyle Juszczyk. Her NFL-chic fashion has spread to partners and supporters of other players around the league, including Simone Biles, Taylor Lautner and Brittany Mahomes Mahomes).

Juszczyk had about 100,000 followers before she sent Swift and Mahomes jackets for the Jan. 13 game, according to Social Blade. Within a month, her income exceeded 1 million.

Juszczyk holds the official license to design a puffer vest commemorating Super Bowl 58 that was worn by celebrities. One such vest sells for $75,000, with proceeds going to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Yuzczyk herself wore a jacket sewn from the jersey during Sunday’s big game, an ode to her husband’s football career.

While players’ wives and girlfriends have long represented their partners with custom designs featuring team colors, logos and numbers, the interplay of fashion and game-day apparel was vibrant in the ’90s and early years, when black artists were ” What’s pushing “It’s cool and trendy,” says culture and fashion writer Tayler Adigun.

“A lot of up-and-coming entertainers in the black space can have a hard time getting bigger names or fashion houses to want to outfit them or outfit them for events, award shows and performances, so they have to be a little more innovative in their approach,” Adigun explain. “This was definitely born out of necessity.”

This has led to a fusion of sportswear, fan merchandise and cutting-edge designs, she said. And, of course, there are the iconic looks: Mia’s blue North Carolina jersey dress is one of them. Then there’s Mariah Carey in a floor-length Washington Wizards gown. According to a 2003 Baltimore Sun article, Kylie’s dress sparked such interest that the NBA added the design to their NBA4her collection.

When Larena Hooper began studying women and sports, she didn’t set out to study clothing. But women continue to express how difficult it is to find something they actually want to wear to represent their team. A decade ago, licensed women’s merchandise often followed three key principles: “Pink, shine, shrink,” Hooper said.

Hoeber, a professor at the University of Regina who has written about women’s sportswear and perceptions, said sports leagues are doing themselves a disservice by not taking risks on smaller creators. Smaller designers sometimes have a better understanding of the market and women’s different needs.

“I think what’s really important for women as sports fans is that they want an official logo, like they want it to look like, ‘This is it. I support my team,'” she added. “So they want that, but they want the clothing to fit their style.”

Women want diversity, and sports leagues often underestimate the market, which leads to innovation. Damron, the designer of Niles’ popular jumpsuits, has launched a new line of themed apparel that pays homage to the league’s franchise following a surge of interest.

Zak Miller, Frankie Collective’s director of operations, said employee Sara Gourlay saw an opportunity to repurpose unsaleable vintage jerseys and turn them into women’s streetwear, including corsets and crop tops. top. The company’s mission is to be sustainable, and even without licensing deals, they’ve partnered with big brands like Adidas and Nike and even the National Hockey League to prevent clothes from ending up in landfills.

“I’m grateful to Kristen because she’s bringing some visibility to an industry that’s been around for a while,” Miller said.

His high-fashion pieces stand out among other NFL license holders, including giants like Nike, Under Armor and Fanatics. (Juszczyk isn’t alone, though: Kiya Tomlin, a designer whose husband, Mike Tomlin, is the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, has a license for high-end clothing.)

Juszczyk did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

An NFL spokesman said the league has a standard application process for all partners such as Juszcyzk. He added that many of the programs are designed to make it easier for smaller companies to work with the alliance.

Adigun said that twenty years ago, when this trend was first taking shape, there were not the same partners and opportunities.

On one hand, 32-year-old Alexis Robinson was happy to see Juszczyk get his driver’s license.

“I’m excited to start making more stuff like this,” said Robinson, a black designer who runs Boujee Basics. “On the other hand, it seems bad because it’s been a long time in the making and it’s just that the process is almost impossible.”

Robinson started by making himself a cropped denim jacket. When they caught on, she started researching licenses. It launched applications to all major leagues — from basketball, to football, to hockey and baseball. Although it was a relatively simple process and all fees needed to be paid, she never received word about her application to the NFL.

For De’fron Fobb, 45, another black designer, the upfront cost was too high. When the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl in 2010, he wanted to make his own apparel. Since then, the Louisiana native has focused his apparel on college sports. He said he had been following Juszczyk’s work for some time.

“She does a great job. Her designs and custom products are amazing,” he said. “But, she was lucky enough to get into this field. So it was a different path for her than most small businesses, like mine.”

Hooper hopes this attention will open doors for more creators.

“Women are not a homogenous group or a homogeneous market,” she said. “I think we’re starting to see the cracks, recognizing that this isn’t just ‘we’re going to narrow the men’s offering to women’s.'”