Kristin Juszczyk opens up on 'dream' new NBA collection, THAT 'pinch-me' Taylor Swift moment and how she really feels about the 'WAG' label

Almost two years ago, Kristin Juszczyk, the wife of San Francisco 49ers star Kyle Juszczyk, was hand-sewing her own eye-catching gameday outfits in her living room. Now, she's the head of a fashion empire.

Just over a year after Taylor Swift and Brittany Mahomes sent her handmade puffer jackets viral, Kristin launched Off Season in January 2025 - with the help of fashion titan Emma Grede, who has ties to the Kardashian family. 

The Long Island native, 31, had taken her hobby of repurposing team merchandise into custom one-off pieces and reinvented what sportswear looks like for the everyday NFL fan.

Fast forward just nine months and her young brand is already expanding beyond the NFL world. Tuesday marks the release of Kristin’s custom NBA range, which is set to bring her flair for fashion to the hard court.

Ranging from $285 to $375, the collection, which dropped at 10am ET, boasts her signature touch on puffer jackets, vests and coats representing a handful of NBA teams: The Boston Celtics, the Chicago Bulls, the Golden State Warriors, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the New York Knicks.

‘It's truly beyond my wildest dreams,’ she told The Daily Mail on the eve of the launch. ‘We haven't even hit year one yet, and to be able to work with the NFL, the WNBA, and now the NBA is just such a dream come true.

‘I couldn't be any more excited to work with the NBA. I feel like the NBA has such a completely different style and fashion than the NFL. It's an indoor sport, so there's so many more daring options you can do.

‘The NBA has really been able to affect the fashion industry. To be able to take that aesthetic and bring it into Off Season was such an amazing challenge for us, and it's been so fun to design into it.'

The puffer jacket launch is just the beginning. Kristin teases a treasure trove of ‘amazing ideas’ for an upcoming ready-to-wear collection with the league which is on the horizon.

She also reveals that the end goal for Off Season is to cater to sports fans 365 days a year. She wants fans to fall head over heels with her attire to the point they want to wear them beyond game days.

‘It's just a piece that you feel so confident in,’ she says, envisioning pieces that people will be able to wear on the go in their everyday lives. ‘Sports is a way of life. It's a culture. It's not just on game days. It's city pride, it's state pride. It connects so many people. So, to be able to engulf that feeling in fashion is everything for us.’

Basketball players, whether in the NBA or the WNBA, have rarely shied away from putting their own personal spin on style. The tunnel walk, in particular, has become a staple of the leagues in recent years, serving as the stage for players’ latest looks.

In fact, the hoops stars are so dedicated to their trailblazing trends that Kristin claims it makes it impossible to single out just one fashionista. They all serve as her inspiration.

‘Every player, they're fashionistas in their own way. It's really cool to watch them take their style and be able to walk into the games feeling their best,’ she gushes.

‘As a culture, we're not only looking at what's on the court, but we're also looking at the players before they even enter the arena to see what they wear. It's become a full 24-hour cycle of the day. So, I can't pick one specific player, because I just feel like there's so many amazingly dressed players in the NBA.’

While Kristin’s Off Season masterpieces are now poised to sweep through the NBA, she has already seen a host of other big names wear her designs.

Olympic legend Simone Biles, Twilight alum Taylor Lautner and WNBA icons are all among the proud owners of her custom pieces – helping rocket her brand into the spotlight.

‘It's just such a pinch-me moment, truly,’ she says of seeing the likes of Swift and Co sporting her attire. ‘I feel so honored when somebody comes to me and wants a piece made by me. It's a true dream come true.

‘[It has had] the biggest impact. It was the whole reason that people were able to see my designs. It was everything for me. I owe everything to anybody who's ever supported my brand and worn it.

‘My whole life changed when I started getting traction from celebrities wearing my designs, and I couldn't be any more grateful to anybody who's ever worn any piece made by me.’

Kristin’s husband Kyle, a nine-time Pro Bowl fullback for the Niners, has even proudly served as a model for his wife’s creations.

The couple’s romance first sparked back in 2014 when Kristin took the plunge and added him on Facebook after seeing him playing. Kyle was suiting up for the Baltimore Ravens at the time when Kristin, who was studying at the nearby Towson University, attended a game with her uncle.

After a while of Kyle liking her photos but failing to make the first move, she took matters into her own hands and sent the first message. Their relationship bloomed from there with the couple tying the knot in 2019.

When asked if she’s managed to drill the NBA’s ‘look good, feel good, play good’ mantra into her husband, Kristin jokes that she tries her best – even if she’s not ready to admit that he's graduated from apprentice to master just yet.

‘He has come such a long way when it comes to fashion,’ she admits. ‘I mean, he's a Midwest boy from Ohio, and if you were to see the pictures of what he used to wear before we met, and then the pictures of what he wears now, we've come a long way.

‘I feel so proud that he feels so comfortable in his own style and his own fashion now.’

Pop sensation Swift’s strut into the Kansas City Chiefs’ playoff game against the Miami Dolphins in the red jacket emblazoned with Travis Kelce’s No. 87 has been seared into NFL fashion folklore since it took the sporting world by storm last year. It’s a moment that has been hailed for kickstarting Kristin’s career.

But Kristin’s rise truly began long before then. She always had a passion for fashion something which stemmed from dancing growing up and the excitement of receiving her costumes for recitals.

She recalls knitting and crocheting with her grandma in front of the television, working their needles while watching Wheel of Fortune. ‘I would have no idea what's going on, because I was so young I probably couldn't even read,’ she jokes.

But it wasn’t until later in life that she began to truly hone her craft.

Kristin didn’t study fashion at college, instead graduating with a degree in business administration in 2016. Instead, she says she earned her sewing qualifications from ‘YouTube University.’

In 2019, she and her husband wanted to replicate Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s iconic matching all-denim looks from the 2001 AMAs for Halloween, but countless searches online came up blank. So, she took matters into her own hands.

She picked up a sewing machine, studied at the school of YouTube and transformed yards of thrifted denim into masterpieces – all completely self-taught.

‘I just really fell in love. That was the moment that changed everything for me,’ she explains. ‘I loved working with my hands, spending hours and days making something, and then being so proud wearing it. I love being able to tell everybody that I made it.’

From there, her hobby snowballed. Kristin relished the challenge of creating her own custom gameday looks to cheer on Kyle at Levi’s Stadium, elevating each design every week.

‘It almost became a fun challenge of every single week trying to come up with something completely different than the week prior.’

But Kristin’s craft – and now her brand – wasn’t just born out of challenge; it was born out of necessity.

In a fanwear economy that’s historically catered to men, Off Season makes women the priority. Gone are the days where women would have to hunt for appropriate pieces, drown in oversized male silhouettes or be limited to the pink color palette. Now, they are the target.

‘That's the whole fundamentals of the entire brand,’ she says. ‘It all started because I'm a fan of the sport, and I felt like when I went into a store, I wasn't represented properly. I realized if I couldn’t buy it, there was only one other option, and that was to create it.’

The growth of the female sports fan in the NFL has been attributed to Swift over the past few years but trailblazers like Kristin deserve just as much credit.

She explains that designing for women is at the forefront of Off Season’s manifesto. The brand strives to ensure that the silhouettes and graphics are just as complimentary on a female body as men’s.

‘We want to make sure that women always feel like there's a safe space for them. When I go to games and look around, it feels like there's 50 percent females there. So, making sure that they feel supported just as much as men is super important to me and I hope that with Off Season you feel represented.’

Before Off Season even launched, Kristin already had a host of models readily available: Her NFL family.

Starting with her Niners community, she designed for the likes of Olivia Culpo, the wife of Christian McCaffrey, and Claire Kittle, the wife of George Kittle.

And her gratitude for her sisterhood shines through.

‘We really are such a family,’ she says ‘Whether you're on the same team or not, no one else relates to what you're going through or what your partners are going through more than anybody else who's part of that league or team.’

She adds: ‘To have Kyle and his teammates blindly support me was so sweet. It just shows what a family this team really is. That's what I love so much about sports, it really brings people together from all over the country, different backgrounds, and different religions. Everyone's raised so differently, and you have one common goal, and that's to win.’

It’s that sense of community that she strives to enthuse into Off Season, whether it’s from the employee she hires, the fulfillment she gets from seeing fans wear her clothes, or the enjoyment of people bonding over their love of the designs.

Kristin attends every one of her husband’s games – home and away – with only illness ever keeping her away from the stands. Her admiration and support for Kyle is evident in her way she opens up on his career but it’s clear that he’s just as proud that she’s finally – and rightfully - getting her moment in the spotlight.

‘It's incredibly important, because at the end of the day, we're all individuals, right?’ she says when asked about the wives and girlfriend of football stars receiving due recognition beyond their NFL partners. ‘That’s not to lose sight of how incredibly proud I am of my husband. I love nothing more than supporting him and watching him do everything that he loves to do.

‘But I think the roles can be reversed. He loves supporting me and watching me thrive. I think it's important for everyone to have individual happiness and their own craft, or whatever makes them feel fulfilled in life.

‘I think it can definitely be tough with athletes, because there can be a bit of a stigma sometimes with the partners. But I don't think anybody should be wrong for loving, supporting what makes their partner happy.’

Part of that stigma has been tied to the term ‘WAG,’ which stands for Wives and Girlfriends and has been shunned by some partners in recent years. But for Kristin, it’s a badge of honor.

‘I don't find the term offensive whatsoever,’ she insists. ‘I'm proud to be able to support him. I think if there was a term for what you would call them, then he would be equally as proud to bear it.’

Kyle is in his 13th season in the league and there will come a day when Kristin is no longer a ‘WAG,’ but for now the couple aren’t ready to turn their attention to life beyond the NFL.

‘‘We definitely think about what life looks like post-NFL, but we're also so aware that these are his glory days. These are the days that he'll talk about and reminisce on for the rest of his life. So I think it's really important for Kyle to stay really present in this feeling. Because I think when players retire, it's like a feeling that they’re always searching for.

‘There's still that goal of winning a Super Bowl that he hasn’t been able to hit – yet.’

Kristin also has her own goal to hit before Kyle hangs up his cleats: Watching him play at all 30 NFL stadiums.

She reveals that she only has a few left to tick off – a couple of which will be crossed off in the coming weeks when the Niners travel to Houston to face the Texans this weekend and Indianapolis to take on the Colts in December.

‘I especially love going to the away games,’ says Kristin, ‘because it's fun to see the city culture. Every stadium is so different from each other, and everybody has their thing that they do, and that's really fun to be able to witness.’

In the meantime, she has an empire to manage – and continue to grow. The expansion to the NBA is surely just the beginning.