This is an episode of the Glossy Fashion Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the fashion industry. More from the series →
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On the Glossy Podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and editor-in-chief Jill Manoff break down some of the biggest fashion news of the week.
This week, we’re talking about the Super Bowl. With the biggest American sporting event of the year happening this weekend, Jill sat down with Carey Collins Krug, the CMO of Abercrombie & Fitch.
Since August, Abercrombie has been the “official fashion partner of the NFL.” But what does that mean exactly? Krug was part of the initial pitch meeting between Abercrombie and the NFL when the partnership was first struck and she’s been involved as it has expanded to include fashion shows, more collections and in-stadium events.
Below are a few highlights from the conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity.
The growth of the partnership
Krug: “From the very beginning, [partnership] started to outperform what we had expected it to be, from a [product] sales perspective. From an outreach perspective, we received inbound athletes reaching out to us because they discovered it on their own and they loved the design and the quality. Then we started working with them organically and they started working with our stylists. And we started to think that this could be a lot bigger than what we originally thought. And it has grown from there.”
Styling athletes
Krug: “A big part of our programming that launched earlier this year is called the Abercrombie Style Concierge: A select number of athletes work with our in-house design team and our in-house stylists for their tunnel walks and for other aspects of their lives.”
Showing up at the Super Bowl
Krug: “We have a presence all [Super Bowl] week, which we’re very excited about. … We partnered with the NFL to give custom bomber jackets to every athlete that’s playing in the Pro Bowl. And then we have our fashion presentation on Saturday. We have a pop-up shop on the ground at the SBX Experience with our exclusive Super Bowl collection, and that’s for baby and toddler up through adults — the entire family. We also have a lot of friends of the brand and creators that are going to be on the ground with us doing a livestream on social of everything that is happening.”
The power of the NFL
Krug: “From an American sports perspective, the NFL and its reach is far greater than any other sports franchise. And the fandom that people have for their teams and for the athletes is very real and very personal. And I think the impact of the athletes is just as important off the field as it is on the field.”
The goal
Krug: “I can tell you that we are already very happy with this partnership. And we look at, of course, every single one of the individual activations that we do in terms of: Did that meet our expectations, from a reach perspective, from a traffic perspective, from a consideration perspective? But making Abercrombie synonymous with NFL fashion is our ultimate goal. And we’re very much still at the beginning of what this could be. But we’re dreaming big together with the NFL.”
