The WAG Jacket Part 1: American Football

The art of customizable jackets has been widely incorporated into WAG style across both American and European football this past year. While many took notice in American football through Taylor Swift, the rise can be credited to Kristin Juszczyk, wife of American football player Kyle Juszczyk and designer of the popular jackets.

Kristin Juszczyk attends a San Francisco 49ers’ game wearing a custom-made varsity jacket designed and sewn by herself. Photographed by John Locher for The Associated Press, February 2024. Available via The New York Times. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

It was one of the coldest days in NFL history in Kansas City when Taylor Swift stepped out to support boyfriend Travis Kelce as he and the Kansas City Chiefs took on the Miami Dolphins at the beginning of 2024. The main highlight? Swift’s bright red custom puffer jacket featuring Kelce’s number, 87, and last name. And while Swift’s popularity continued to grow within the NFL, it was Kristin Juszczyk who reaped the benefits. 

The 30-year-old wife to San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk has been repurposing vintage 49ers clothing for years, turning jerseys and t-shirts into everything from skirts, tops, boots and, most notably, jackets. Some of her more memorable jackets include a varsity jacket made from all of her husband’s past teams’ jerseys and accolades she wore to last year’s superbowl and a half- jersey half-denim jacket with an embroidered ‘Del4yed, not De9ied’in reference to the 49ers Super Bowl loss. 

Kristin Juszczyk wears a vintage San Francisco 49ers jacket she reworked with fur lining to a Super Bowl playoff game in 2023. Via IG @kristinjuszczyk. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Juszczyk has no fashion background to speak of, studying business at Towson University. Although she briefly studied fashion before switching to business, she is a self-taught designer whose first dabble into design was sewing a two-piece checkered sweatsuit with her husband’s nickname ‘Juice’ on one of the panels. And while her pieces have only grown in artistry in the three years since the start of her fashion journey, it wasn’t until Swift’s custom jacket debut last year that she started to gain traction for her creations. 

In 24 hours, Juszczyk gained over 100,000 Instagram followers, and weeks later, she signed a licensing deal with the National Football League to use the official NFL logo in her designs. Her demand within the WAG world of American football grew with the addition of a custom made puffer jersey jacket for Brittney Mahomes, wife to Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes, and a custom puffer for gymnast Simone Biles when she stepped out to support her husband, Jonathan Owens at a Green Bay Packers game. 

Simone Biles walks hand in hand with her husband Jonathan Owens wearing a Kristin Juszczyk custom-made Green Bay Packers puffer vest. Via IG @simonebiles. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

WAG fashion in American football has remained largely uninspired, with most wives and girlfriends choosing to wear their partners’ jerseys over a pair of jeans or trousers. It's no wonder that the fashion world took little interest in American football with the lack of originality that many WAGs brought to the sidelines. 

In 2015, Gisele Bündchen ignited a cultural shift in WAG style when she famously wore a red, white and blue plaid button down in support of her then-husband Tom Brady’s team, The Patriots, at the Super Bowl. The trend grew as more WAGs like Olivia Culpo and Ciara sported modern streetwear in colors from their partners’ teams. Jerseys started turning into mini dresses, and vintage jackets became the norm as individualism began to trend in a twist of the modern day WAG style.    

Gisele Bündchen carries her son Benjamin across the field following the Patriots 2015 Super Bowl Win against the Seattle Seahawks in Glendale, Arizona. She wears a plaid Rails button up with Stuart Weiztman boots. Photo by Kevin C. Cox, courtesy of Getty Images, and made available via Vogue. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Juszczyk began taking vintage jackets and repurposing them with the intent of giving them a more modern look, adding embellishments like fur lining and customized embroidery of her husband’s number. It wasn’t until she debuted her take on the traditional letterman style, a jacket with banded wrists and waists that has a long history rooted in American sport, that the popularity of the WAG jacket began to grow. 

The letterman derives from the letter sweater first worn by Harvard University's baseball team in 1865. The sweaters were renowned for the large H stitched to the center, and players who played in the biggest games were allowed to keep their sweaters while the others had to return them to the school. Schools slowly began to pick up on the style, and in 1930, the sweater evolved into a wool jacket with a large chenille letter sewn onto one side. The modern varsity jacket follows the same design, although some vary in material and feature other wool patches of a student’s achievement in the sport. The jacket has evolved as a cultural emblem of sport in American fashion, with many American athletes like LeBron James incorporating it into their everyday wardrobe outside of the field. 

The Harvard University baseball team poses for a team photo. Photo: Harvard University / Harvard University Archives / 1877 © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

The art of the WAG jacket has inspired a broader movement towards originality, prompting WAGs to come into their own outside of their athletic partners’ shadows. Sportswear and high fashion come together in carefully planned designs that blend team motifs and intricate details in textured accents, embroidered text and various fabrics.The jacket has drawn a considerable fashion crowd to the allure of American football, proof that the American sport is solidifying itself within the conversation of the value of sports’ role in fashion. 

American football has long been a sport with some of the least fashion visibility, despite previous brand collaborations with popular players like Tua Tagovailoa with Perry Ellis and Stefon Diggs with Tommy Hilfiger. Many questioned whether or not the sport would even have a pull within the fashion landscape outside of Swift’s influence. It's clear that Juszczyk’s jackets are changing the narrative, drawing the influence and interest of major fashion players like Emma Grede, co-founder of popular Kardashian brands such as Skims and Good American.   

Models wear Off Season’s Kansas City Chiefs’ puffer vest, Buffalo Bills’ long puffer jacket, and Philadelphia Eagles’ puffer jacket. Via IG @offseasonbrand. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Juszczyk’s successful 2024 led to a partnership with Grede to launch Off Season, an apparel brand featuring Juszczyk’s most popular products like custom puffer vests and jackets. In identifying a gap in the fashion market that leaves American football apparel vulnerable to a lack of imagination, Juszczyk and Grede look to enhance a subsection of sportswear that uplifts the sport. The brand is already in demand as the Philadelphia Eagles jacket is currently selling out fast after reality star Paige DeSorbo wore one to an Eagles game a few days ago. With the Super Bowl approaching, Off Season and Juszczyk’s custom jackets are set to define a new era of American football WAG style.