Wife of 49ers’ Kyle Juszczyk becomes designing star thanks to Taylor Swift

The wife of San Francisco fullback Kyle Juszczyk was the designer of the puffy winter coat worn by Taylor Swift that went viral over the weekend

For one night at least, San Francisco 49ers All-Pro fullback Kyle Juszczyk was not the biggest star in his family.

All it took was pop superstar-turned-Chiefs fan Taylor Swift wearing a puffy winter coat designed by Juszczyk’s wife, Kristin, that looked like the jersey of Swift’s boyfriend, tight end Travis Kelce, to a playoff game in frigid Kansas City on Saturday night.

“Just happiness,” Kyle Juszczyk said Tuesday about his reaction to seeing one of the world’s most recognized celebrities wearing something his wife designed.

“Just appreciation. Just so stoked for her because I know how hard she’s worked, how hard she grinded. To see Taylor wearing it and it looked incredible. It was just awesome. We were just so happy in our house.”

Kristin Juszczyk has been making custom designs for several years, starting with Halloween costumes and growing to outfits she has worn to her husband’s games.

Even some of the 49ers players, such as receiver Deebo Samuel, have worn her creations this season, as well as people such as Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, whose husband, Jonathan Owens, plays for the Green Bay Packers, and Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

That led to an opening to send a Travis Kelce jacket to Swift, who ended up wearing it to the game on Saturday night, making the designer a mini-celebrity, who drew interest from wide-ranging outlets such as Vogue Magazine and ESPN football insider Adam Schefter.

“Honestly one of the cooler things of this was it merged two different worlds: The football world was interested in it, the fashion world, the Swifties,” Juszczyk said. “All that and they all came together.”

Well, 2023 didn’t exactly go to plan, did it?

Here in the UK, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, had promised us a government of stability and competence – not forgetting professionalism, integrity and accountability – after the rollercoaster ride of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. Remember Liz? These days she seems like a long forgotten comedy act. Instead, Sunak took us even further through the looking-glass into the Conservative psychodrama.

Elsewhere, the picture has been no better. In the US, Donald Trump is now many people’s favourite to become president again. In Ukraine, the war has dragged on with no end in sight. The danger of the rest of the world getting battle fatigue and losing interest all too apparent. Then there is the war in the Middle East and not forgetting the climate crisis …

But a new year brings new hope. There are elections in many countries, including the UK and the US. We have to believe in change. That something better is possible. The Guardian will continue to cover events from all over the world and our reporting now feels especially important. But running a news gathering organisation doesn’t come cheap.

So this year, I am asking you – if you can afford it – to give money. Well, not to me personally – though you can if you like – but to the Guardian. The average monthly support in Vietnam is around $4, however much you give, all that matters is you’re choosing to support open, independent journalism.

With your help, we can make our journalism free to everyone. You won’t ever find any of our news reports or comment pieces tucked away behind a paywall. We couldn’t do this without you. Unlike our politicians, when we say we are in this together we mean it.

Happy new year!