The Classic Design of NFL Apparel
Simple. Strong. Classic.
On January 18, 1982, coach Bill Walsh walked the tunnels of the Pontiac Silverdome as his San Francisco 49ers were set to begin their first workout in the week leading up to Super Bowl XVI.
This was it, everything Walsh had worked towards was finally here. As cameras take his picture, he wears the weight of anticipation in his expression, but it wasn’t a moment he would ever shy away from.
“Be bold,” Walsh would later write in The Score Takes Care of Itself. “Remove fear of the unknown — that is, change — from your mind.”
Walsh was a master of preparation, of thinking through every conceivable scenario that could happen on the football field. He developed a revolutionary offensive system and was ready to let it ride at the highest level. His championship mentality was about to be put to the test.
Walsh, 50 years old at the time, had worked his way up the ranks of the football coaching ladder going all the way back to 1957 when he became head coach at Washington Union High School in Fremont, California. He turned that floundering team into a champion, and he was about to do the same with the 49ers.
But as Walsh walked out onto the practice field in 1982, the Niners — or any San Francisco sports team, for that matter — had yet to win anything. Their 1980s dynasty would begin with a 26-21 victory over Cincinnati in that Super Bowl, but the journey was set in motion long before that.
“Champions behave like champions before they’re champions,” Walsh said. “They have a winning standard of performance before they are winners.”
Whether it was in the tunnels of the Silverdome ahead of the biggest game of his life or in front of the chalkboard diagramming plays and waxing philosophical about football, Walsh was a gridiron maestro, often wearing team-issued practice gear, the script “Forty Niners” spelled out in powerful simplicity.
Walsh is the pinnacle of leadership. His is the look of determination, of unmatched discipline.
This is the look of a champion.
A Timeless Aesthetic
From elementary school PE to NFL sidelines, our Classic design helps you pay homage to the origins of vintage American sport gear.
It calls back to a time of function over form. To the doers who get things done.
No flash. No extras. Just bold lettering across the chest, and an even bolder commitment to showing up, play after play, game after game, and day after day. For taking everything life throws at you and coming out the other side stronger than before.
First seen in the 1940s, this style is a tribute to the players who came up together, trained together, and earned respect the hard way. It represents the essence of sport. It's how you perform that counts, your discipline and grit. And you're part of a team, unity and simplicity in the face of adversity, from the endless expanse of a brutally hot training camp to the frozen tundra of a playoff game.
In sports, there’s nothing more important than the name across the front. Ego takes a backseat because the only way you’re winning is as one.
A Classic Design for the Road Ahead
Longtime Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Otis Taylor is remembered most vividly for a signature moment in the 1970 Super Bowl. Breaking free of a mass of defenders on a pass from quarterback Len Dawson, Taylor scampered down the sideline for a 46-yard touchdown to seal the Chiefs’ Super Bowl IV victory.
“Otis made my job easy,” Dawson said. “If you got the pass to Otis, you knew he’d catch it.”
Our NFL Classic design pays homage to a remarkable duo from the NFL’s golden years, and an iconic design aesthetic from sports tees of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. The principles behind NFL Classic are simple: old-fashioned work ethic and dedication leads to results.
This is the kind of gear you’d throw on in the earliest stages of the journey. A 5 a.m. lift, putting in the work before the sun even thinks about rising. Studying the playbook or game film until you couldn’t keep your eyes open any longer. The kind of look that says you were part of something, football immortality being your shared goal. This is the design you pour sweat into, the design that helps you push through to a level you never knew possible.
But it all has to start somewhere. Day one, the work begins. And this look was with you every step of the way. All of the two-a-days. Monday morning after a game and you’re right back at it. Seeing it through to the end.
Earned, Not Given
Hard work and dedication aren’t just empty values to be espoused. They’re modes of survival. In NFL Films’ immortal classic More Than a Game, football is described as a challenge to the mind, body, and spirit. Each player must face it in his own way — physically, psychologically, emotionally.
This was the formula. And it still is, not just for the players we watch and root for, but ourselves. Every season, every game — it’s a physical, psychological, and emotional test for the fans, too.
There’s plenty at stake every second of the season. You have other things to worry about; no need to make your team apparel complicated. Just the name. Classic.
Pay homage with our collection of NFL Classic looks for every football fan in the family.
