From Fashion to Fan: The Strategic Importance Behind the NFL’s New Fashion Licensing Deals

Citation: Glamour

Background

It is no secret that since its inception, football has been “America’s Game.” Super Bowl weekend is a holiday in and of itself. Watching the Super Bowl is no longer just about the game, but a who's who of celebrities and social media influencers in attendance. Former and current NFL players have become famous businessmen, team owners, social media personalities, and cultural icons. However, there is a new market of sport fans that are tuning in to watch the games– women. Football is the #1 sport amongst women and 68% of women and girls consider themselves fans of the National Football League (NFL). In fact, 47% of NFL fans are women. 

This means even bigger business for sports merchandisers and apparel sellers. Hoping to capitalize on this growing market, sports organizations are teaming up with faces in the fashion industry to create clothing that shows a fan’s dedication to their team, while appealing to a fashion-conscious consumer who does not want to have a player’s jersey be the only team apparel available on game day. It is the desire to reach this market that has caused merchandise licensing agreements amongst organizations and brands to grow steadily. But what does it mean for sellers going forward? The NFL licensing agreement has now become an even more strategic partnership for sellers and organizations, and one that organizations are more fervent to protect. 

What is licensing?

Licensing is a contractual agreement that permits one party to use another party’s intellectual property. For sports apparel, this means that organizations enter into merchandising licensing agreements with manufacturers to create goods to sell to fans with trademarked logos on them. “Merchandise licensing is a strategic arrangement that allows sports organizations to authorize third parties to produce and sell products featuring their intellectual property, such as team logos, mascots, and trademarks.” Merchandising licensing agreements are seen as beneficial to both sports organizations and sellers in that they protect the exclusivity of a brand’s intellectual property for both the seller and the organization itself. 

For the NFL specifically, there are two tiers of licensing agreements. The NFL licenses merchandise of the league’s intellectual property, specifically the 32 team names and logos that make up the league, “Monday Night Football”, “Super Bowl” and the NFL shield logo. For the merchandise concerning players, it is the NFL Player’s Association (NFLAP) that creates agreements with companies to use player characteristics and identifiers on merchandise. The NFLPA’s Group Licensing program gives companies licenses for six players or more and enables a company to use a player’s “name, number, likeness, signature and voice.” 

The steady increase in the number of fans has led to an increase in the market size for licensed sports merchandise, thus leading to the NFL entering into fashion-specific merchandise licensing agreements aimed at women. One such agreement has been with Erin Andrews. Andrews, the famous sports broadcaster, entered into a licensing agreement with the NFL in 2019 to create officially licensed merchandise specifically geared toward women. WEAR, Andrew’s brand, has been so successful that the National Hockey League teamed up with Andrews in 2021 to create a WEAR line for women’s merchandise with hockey teams. 

Another licensing agreement that merges high fashion and football is the agreement between the upscale women’s clothing brand Veronica Beard and the NFL. For the 2024-2025 football season, the NFL created a licensing agreement with the clothing brand to create upscale blazers with team logos on it and team-colored “Hooded Dickies” to appeal to sports fans with an interest in fashion. These blazers have been spotted at games on everyone, including player’s wives, influencers, celebrities, team personnel, and sportscasters. 

Perhaps the most well-known licensing agreement that the NFL entered into was with Kristin Juszczyk, fashion designer and wife of San Francisco 49er fullback, Kyle Juszczyk. Juszczyk, known for creating her own clothing for games out of vintage 49er merchandise and her husband’s jerseys, gained notoriety for attending games in her designs. Her designs have become incredibly popular, thanks to celebrities like Simone Biles and Taylor Swift wearing Juszczyk’s creations at games. The talent behind Juszczyk’s designs is not just limited to NFL stars. Caitlin Clark and Klay Thompson have worn custom gear created by the designer. The popularity of her designs led to a licensing agreement with the NFL for Juszczyk to continue creating merchandise with the NFL’s intellectual property, logos, and trademarks. 

Why is it important 

As stated above, sports licensing agreements help to protect the exclusivity and recognizability of the intellectual property for both the IP holder and the merchandiser, who is hoping to gain the exclusivity of selling merchandise with official trademarks on it. As sports and fashion continue to interweave, so has the increase in unlicensed sellers. Counterfeit merchandise is “an item that uses someone else’s trademark without their permission.” To counteract the opportunistic actions of counterfeit sellers, sports organizations can commence trademark and copyright infringement cases against unlawful sellers. Trademark infringement is the “unauthorized use of a trademark or service mark on or in connection with goods and/or services in a manner that is likely to cause confusion, deception, or mistake about the source of the goods and/or services.” To successfully bring a trademark infringement claim, the trademark holder must demonstrate a significant degree of similarity between the two goods. The holder could also claim consumer confusion, the idea that a consumer would think that the unauthorized goods come from the trademark holder since they are so similar. Other considerations the courts can take into account are how and where the goods are advertised and whether or not there is any actual evidence of consumer confusion.  

Sports organizations could also claim that unauthorized sellers of counterfeit merchandise “dilutes” the “value or strength” of the original trademark by “blurring" the mark's distinctiveness or "tarnishing" the mark's image by connecting it to something distasteful or objectionable-even if there is no likelihood of confusion. 

What does this mean going forward? 

Going forward, licensing agreements give merchandisers and organizations a way to profit from intellectual property. Brands can ensure that they are protecting their trademark by only letting certain manufacturers and sellers have access to it, while sellers can ensure that they are getting authentic and exclusive merchandise to sell to consumers. 

For sellers of counterfeit goods, the stakes have become higher. The NFL is notorious for fiercely protecting its intellectual property from counterfeit sellers and conducting operations to root out counterfeit sellers. Recent actions by the NFL demonstrate how seriously they take protecting their intellectual property from unauthorized users and sellers. Last May, the NFL sent a cease and desist letter to the University of Houston to stop wearing their “Love Ya Blue” uniforms on gameday since the jersey colors are substantially similar and may cause confusion to vintage Oiler uniforms that the Tennessee Titans wear. 

Investigations with the Department of Homeland Security, the United States Customs and Border Control, as well as the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, have all worked with the NFL to stop unauthorized merchandise from being sold to consumers. The selling of counterfeit merchandise is especially prevalent before major sporting events. Before the 2024-2025 Super Bowl in New Orleans, authorities seized over $35.9 million in counterfeit merchandise being sold. This includes over 214,000 items with unauthorized trademarks and logos on them.

Conclusion  

Now more than ever, there is an increased value and importance placed on securing licensing agreements with the NFL and other sports organizations for manufacturers and merchandisers. The increase in individuals being fans of both fashion and sports means that an opportunity for organizations and sellers to collaborate to create designs will only become more lucrative. The efforts that the NFL and other professional sports organizations will make to protect their trademarks from unlicensed use will only strengthen. Fashion brands and sellers now have a greater incentive to work for licensing deals with the NFL, or risk consequences. 

*The views expressed in this article do not represent the views of Santa Clara University.