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Taylor Swift's jacket gives Kristin Juszczyk, wife of 49ers' All-Pro fullback, a star boost

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SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The San Francisco 49ers had a bye in the opening round of the playoffs, but that didn't mean Kyle Juszczyk had the weekend off.

The team's fullback sprang into action after his wife, Kristin, managed to conflate three major newsmakers — Taylor Swift, the NFL and the winter storms enveloping the country — as Swift confidently strode into Kansas City's frozen Arrowhead Stadium in a jacket that Kristin had made.

Swift and her legion of followers wield enormous influence and can convulse social media sites. And her long, red puffer fish — adorned with No. 87 from her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — did just that.

For the Juszczyks, it was the equivalent of a five-touchdown day. They had heard that the singer-songwriter planned to wear the jacket, but they weren't sure. Kyle said they were watching on television from their home in San Jose on Saturday afternoon when cameras caught Swift, protected by the jacket and a white beanie, getting out of a golf cart before the Chiefs' wild-card playoff game against the Miami Dolphins started. .

“Happiness, appreciation,” he said of their reaction. “I was so happy for (Kristin) because I know how hard she worked, how hard she grinded. Seeing Taylor wear it – and it looked incredible – was amazing. We were so happy in our house.”

Then Kyle became part hype man, part PR rep, part Internet watchdog. He fielded calls and text messages from media members curious about the blowfish scoop. And he scoured social media to make sure Kristin got credit for the instantly famous jacket. At one point, the NBC announcers joked that Swift is so famous that all she could do was call Nike and have them make her a custom jacket.

“It was like, 'Argh, come on!' We need to let these people know that it was all Kristin,” said Kyle, who noted that the network later corrected the error.

Since Swift walked into the stadium, Kristin has gained more than 450,000 followers Instagram. Kyle also described a flood of media attention, so much so that Kristin chose not to do any interviews this week. They heard from all media outlets, from Vogue, which caught Kristin's eye, to ESPN, which was important to Kyle.

“Adam Schefter doesn't ring any bells with her,” he said. “I had to explain: this is a big problem in the football world. And that was one of the cooler things that came out of this: it merged two different worlds. The football world was interested in it, the fashion world, the Swifties. They all came together and 99.9 percent of it was really positive. So I was very happy to see that.”

The wind chill was minus 27 degrees in Kansas City on Saturday, and Swift still managed to shine when she arrived at the stadium, thanks in part to her custom-made blowfish.

That's why Kristin started designing competition clothing. When she and Kyle first started dating a decade ago, she realized that supporting your soccer boyfriend meant dressing like everyone else in the stadium. The standard fan uniform was, well, uniform. So she started cutting up Kyle's No. 44 jerseys and turning them into something more stylish corset top or mini skirt for a game in early September, a puffer jacket for the play-offs. The theme: red zone meets the red carpet.


Kristin Juszczyk joined her husband, 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, at the Pro Bowl in Las Vegas last year. (Kirby Lee/USA Today)

Her designs got a boost in November when she sent a white, Patrick Mahomes-themed pair pair of trousers to Brittany Mahomes, the wife of the Chiefs quarterback. That's who passed on the jacket Swift wore on Sunday.

In December, gymnast Simone Biles wore one green vest which Kristin matched to the jersey of Biles' husband, Green Bay Packers safety Jonathan Owens. No word on whether the vest will make another appearance Saturday at Levi's Stadium when Owens and the Packers take on the 49ers.

Kristin also approached 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel, one of Kyle's more fashionable teammates, about wearing one of her designs. According to Samuel, her original idea was to make Samuel a jacket with his own number on it, but he declined.

“I said, 'If you make me a (Brock) Purdy one, I'll wear that,'” he said.

So she did, make a vest that included not only Purdy's No. 13, but also with “MVP” in several spots. Samuel said he was given the vest earlier in the season, but he chose to wear it the week after Purdy's four-interception performance against the Baltimore Ravens, a show of confidence in his quarterback.

This past weekend, meanwhile, turned out to be a double Taylor-whammy for Kristin. While she was busy making puffers for Swift and Brittany Mahomes, actor and Michigan native Taylor Lautner reached out and asked for a Detroit Lions-themed jacket for him to wear to Detroit's playoff opener.

Her creations are usually accompanied by a short video that she posts to her Instagram or TikTok accounts. They include a few hair scissor snips, some stitching and – voila! — the garment is complete. The clips last a few seconds and often end with the celebrity rocking the outfit. The one about Lautner's jacket ends with him excitedly opening the package, like a kid tearing into a Nintendo box on Christmas morning.

The light-hearted videos don't convey the hard work involved. Kyle said that some mornings he wakes up at three or four o'clock to find his wife not in bed, but downstairs working on one of her projects. It was also an adventure to get Lautner his jacket, which features the jersey of Lions pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson.

Kristin left the jacket overnight via FedEx, but the package was delayed in Memphis, Tennessee, due to the same storms that had ravaged Kansas City. Kyle said Kristin managed to get a hold of someone high up the chain at FedEx, who told them “their mission was to get that package to (Lautner).”

(In another convergence of worlds, FedEx founder and chairman Fred Smith is the father of former Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith, and FedEx's president and CEO is Arthur's older brother, Richard. Kyle confirmed that she was talking to a member of the Smith family have spoken.)

“They sent a truck to pick him up in Memphis,” Kyle continued. “The truck broke down. They sent another truck. And then they literally delivered to (Lautner) on the sidelines.

This all begs the question: who will be the next celebrity to rock one of Kristin's jersey designs? Kyle wouldn't say if there are any more surprises in store during the playoffs, though his backfield buddy, Christian McCaffrey, revealed that a draft for his fiancée, Olivia Culpo, is in the works. That would be another great boost: after all, Culpo is a model and former Miss Universe winner with 5.3 million Instagram followers.

Still, it will be hard to top Swift, who has 279 million Instagram followers and the power of a queen.

“It's crazy,” Kyle said. “Crazy how powerful one person is.”

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(Top photo of Taylor Swift: Ed Zurga / Associated Press)

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