NFL Gets Fashion Conscious

Can a football jersey be high fashion? The NFL is trying to prove just that—and it’s got one staunch supporter in Manhattan social fixture Suzanne Johnson, who happens to be married to New York Jets owner Woody Johnson.

Johnson, who has been at the forefront of promoting the NFL’s revamped women’s line (read: not just shrunken pink tees), seems to be taking her duties just as seriously as if she were launching a ready-to-wear line. According to WWD, she showed some of the NFL’s “more fashionable” pieces to magazine editors last week, and even convinced some of her socialite friends to wear Jets jerseys to Badgley Mischka’s runway show during New York fashion week earlier this month.

Then there’s the brand’s ad campaign, which Johnson stars in with some of her fellow glammed-up NFL wives (including Gwen Reese, who’s married to New York Giants General Manager Jerry Reese). “They could have taken a supermodel, who is going to look good in a paper bag. But we are the ones wearing the clothes when we cheer on our teams every week,” Johnson told WWD. (They probably saved a few bucks, too.)

The NFL gear, which is being sold in team stadium shops, retailers like Kohls, and through NFLshop.com, even has its own NFL.com/women “lifestyle site” that “shows you what to wear with what—a football jersey with skinny jeans, a puffy vest and Louboutins,” Johnson explained. “Instead of wearing oversized gray sweats, you can show off some team pride, still hang out with your guy, and show you put a little effort into your outfit.”

An NFL jersey with Louboutins? Just be careful not to get your red soles stuck on the beer-soaked stadium floor.