At NFL headquarters on Park Avenue, past the massive chrome football-shaped reception desk and the display case where every Super Bowl ring sparkles under track lighting, a glass door leads up to an open-air deck. On January 20th, a white canvas tent enclosed that terrace, and space heaters fought the winter air as a fashionable crowd mingled with NFL executives. The league, in partnership with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), was unveiling 50 “bespoke” footballs created by some of the country’s most successful fashion designers.
The NFL commissioned fashion designers to make ridiculous bespoke footballs no one wants
The NFL teamed up with fashion designers to make useless footballs that almost no one wants. A sportswriter and fashion editor discuss what went wrong.
SB Nation’s Matt Ufford attended the event with Nicola Fumo of Racked (Vox Media’s brand dedicated to fashion and shopping). Their discussion follows.
Matt Ufford: I guess the most immediate question is Who is this for? In the Venn diagram that depicts the overlap of football fans and fashion lovers, are there even 50 people who would want one of these in their home? I don’t mind that the NFL teamed up with designers to put sequins and whatnot on footballs, but the cognitive dissonance is jarring. A football is utilitarian; hot-gluing metal studs to it in the name of art is head-scratching, at best.
A football fit for a sultan! Design by Rachel Zoe. Photo: NFL
Nicola Fumo: Yes, it seems obvious that the NFL wants is to touch a broader audience, one that might not necessarily be interested in football but that maybe — just maybe — is interested in fashion.
It seemed like a Project Runway-esque exercise for the fashion designers to basically put their brand’s take on a football, the same way an eyewear licensing company might come to them and be like “we want to do frames for your brand, here are the parameters.” (I actually spoke to one of the designers in the elevator on the way out, and the only rule was they couldn’t cover the “Super Bowl 50” graphic.)
Ufford: The Project Runway comparison is apt: a design stunt whipped up by producers because they’re in, like, the 18th season of the show, with the only real purpose of the exercise to make Tim Gunn frown and rub his chin.
Fumo: Yessss. I just checked: only 10 of the footballs have more than 1 bid.
Ufford: Oof. And fully half of them have no bids at all. (Note: The auction is open until February 14th.)
Fumo: I would have loved to see fan apparel imagined by these designers. Imagine if Rag & Bone had done a jersey, or if Suno had done a cool pullover hoodie.
Ufford: That’s a little beyond my fashion knowledge, but I imagine they’d be cooler than the Levi’s NFL collection. And certainly more accessible than these concept footballs.
So, we don’t know WHO these footballs are for -- and the lack of bids suggest that no one up the chain knew, either. But are there any you would conceivably display in your home?
Fumo: Some of the more minimal, “heritage” styles (all by menswear designers) could be a cool addition to a, sigh, man cave.
Miansai’s navy leather ball
Ufford: This is a safe space. Please, call it a den.
Fumo: Which brings in bummer gender stereotypes: man caves, and football-for-women-includes-crystal-covered-balls. It all feels so outdated.
Ufford: Just like the most influential NFL writers!
Fumo: You have these two terrifically powerful organizations in both fields, and instead of creating cool, fan-facing product, they have this forced-feeling collab that seems to be more about a press hit for both parties than anything greater.
Ufford: So, you’re welcome, CFDA and NFL!
Fumo: Pretty much.
Ufford: The thing the NFL won’t accept is that their product might have a ceiling. Commissioner Roger Goodell is hellbent on making the league’s annual revenue $25 billion by 2027, and that’s why the NFL shoehorns games in London and does fashion things like this. He thinks with the right wrapping, EVERYONE on the planet will love the NFL.
Fumo: Meanwhile, the CFDA is working furiously to modernize. New York Fashion Week is under construction; they just brought in Boston Consulting Group to assess the future of fashion shows, and gave NYFW a new logo not long ago (inspired, interestingly, by the Knicks team colors).
Ufford: I was surprised by the crowd in attendance. That was almost entirely a fashion crowd, interspersed with some NFL suits and a small handful of players. For what was essentially a press event, none of the usual NFL bootlickers or brand worshipers were there -- which means they weren’t invited. And that means the NFL knows exactly how hard most fans would roll their eyes at this.
Fumo: That’s a really interesting takeaway. I noted a lot of designers and CFDA people in attendance. Of course, there were 50 designers, so anyone who lives in New York (a bulk of them) probably would have been required to show face.
Ufford: I mean, there wasn’t much else to do besides look at footballs. Which, now that I think about it: wouldn’t this event have made 800% more sense at an art gallery?
Fumo: Oh mannnn. Yes, that could have been striking -- a big, well-lit room.
Ufford: And THIS is literally a design on a cake in a supermarket:
(David Hart for David Hart NYC)
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