The NFL has been a league of stylish players touting comfort-casual clothing from various apparel partners… until today.
The National Football League just announced a multiyear deal naming Abercrombie & Fitch as its first Official NFL Fashion Partner. While Abecrombie has produced NFL-licenced products since 2022—leaning heavily into bold, colorful, ‘90s-influenced vintage design—the new partnership goes several steps beyond by bringing in the league’s players to lead campaigns and create their own apparel.
The league has counted labels and designers, including Born x Raised, Veronica Beard, Kith, AAPE, Tyler the Creator’s Golf Wang, Drake’s OVO, Kristin Juszczyk and Emma Grede’s Off Season, Roc Nation, and Cactus Jack, among its recent collaborators. But the NFL hadn’t named one an official partner until this point and, following reaction to Juszczyk’s now-iconic puffer jacket for Taylor Swift, has stated that it sees the intersection of fashion and sports as vital to its efforts to grow its fanbase—especially among women, who currently comprise more than 47% of NFL fans.
“We’re uniquely positioned for this moment where sports, fashion, and culture are converging like never before,” said Abercrombie & Fitch Co. CEO Fran Horowitz. “This NFL partnership goes beyond licensing. It is about meeting the needs of an expanding audience. Together, the NFL and Abercrombie are helping to build fandom through fashion.”
For the NFL’s partnership with Abercrombie to work as intended, it has to go beyond team logos and nostalgic patterns and become an extension of the league’s culture. The NFL took its first step in that direction in October, when it promoted fashion content strategist Kyle Smith to the league’s first fashion editor and announced it to the world in Vogue.
His influence is apparent in one of the partnership’s first initiatives, Abercrombie Style Concierge, which provides curated outfits for certain NFL athletes and access to Abercrombie styling experts. Among those receiving the earliest access to the program are players starring in Abercrombie’s national campaign touting the partnership, including Christian McCaffrey (San Francisco 49ers), Amon-Ra St. Brown (Detroit Lions), CeeDee Lamb (Dallas Cowboys), and Tee Higgins (Cincinnati Bengals).
Other initial “Style Concierge” players include Fred Warner (San Francisco 49ers), Drake Maye (New England Patriots), Cooper DeJean (Philadelphia Eagles), and Jake Ferguson (Dallas Cowboys).
