Score a Look at 49ers Player Kyle Juszczyk and Wife Kristin’s Romance
Originally appeared on E! Online
He's got that Super Bowl daydream look in his eye. And she's got that reworked sportswear garb that Taylor Swift likes. So basically San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk and designer wife Kristin Juszczyk will never go out of style.
Particularly with the onetime aspiring realtor constantly dreaming up new custom pieces.
Years before Kristin signed a deal with the NFL to use their logos in the reworked puffer jackets she's crafted for the likes of Taylor, Brittany Mahomes, Simone Biles and Taylor Lautner, she was just a girl trying to feel cute while cheering on the boy from the football team.
"My husband has been playing in the NFL for 10 years," the 29-year-old explained to E! News last year of the Harvard alum she met while he was playing for the Baltimore Ravens and she was studying business administration and marketing at Maryland's Towson University. "After about year six, I started getting bored of wearing the same three t-shirts on rotation. I remembered that I had my sewing machine in the garage that would only get used when Halloween rolled around. I started playing around with a few ideas that I had and quickly realized that I had a knack for it."
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So while Kyle has been busy collecting stats on the field—ahead of San Francisco's return trip to the big game Feb. 11, the Ohio native, 32, was named to his eighth pro bowl—Kristin is the one making headlines for her gig as the go-to designer for the NFL's MVPs, as in most valuable partners.
"I'm so proud of her," Kyle told NBC Sports Bay Area Jan. 16 after the "twinning & winning" puffer coats the Designs By Kristin founder made for Taylor and Brittany went viral. "And she's extremely talented, and the things she's putting out there are one of a kind. I wanted to make sure she got that credit."
Even if that meant taking on a side hustle as publicist.
A day after he posted videos of Taylor in his wife's designs, Kyle spoke to reporters about seeing her hunched over a sewing machine at all hours of the day. Noting how she often puts 20 hours into every jacket, he said, "I just wanted to make sure she got that credit. At first, the announcers were like, 'Taylor Swift can get Nike to do anything!' And I was like, 'Ahh, come on! We got to let people know this was all Kristin.'"
Because, yes, four years into their marriage, he remains his wife's biggest cheerleader.
"Kyle's definitely gotten into fashion a lot since meeting me. He's been having a lot of fun with it," the New York native told Niners Nation. "I ask him his opinion on a lot of things, and he's my model. I always have him try everything on because I need to make sure it looks good on him."
To Kristin, he's a role model in every sense of the word.
"He inspires me so much because there is nobody I know that loves his job every single day," she explained. "That man wakes up with a smile on his face, and he comes home with a smile on his face...it makes me want to go after my dreams, too."
These days they're each making big plays, with Kristin hoping to bring her one-of-a-kind styles to the masses.
"It's such a fun outlet to be able to support my husband while also being creative in my own sense," she explained to the New York Post. "And I'm hoping, possibly, to grow a business from all of this one day, and to actually get stuff out for fans all over with every NFL team so they don't have to wear the same plain T-shirt and jersey, just like how I didn't want to either."
While we wait to see how she'll suit up for the big game, we're breaking down the Xs and Os of how they became teammates.
<p>Instagram Official</p>
A year after the Towson University student met her "amazing" future husband in Maryland where he was catching passes for the Baltimore Ravens, the pair hard-launched their relationship on Instagram with photos like this snap from a pal's May 2015 wedding.
<p>Marching Down the Field</p>
Two years in, the duo decided to huddle up together in their own Maryland home in August 2016. As Kristin wrote, referencing their early days, "Started with a follow now we're here."
<p>Teammates for Life</p>
"Still feels like a dream but I couldn't possibly feel anymore love than I do right now!" she wrote of his May 2017 beach proposal. "It's a privilege to be able to love you forever."
<p>California Here We Come</p>
Though the business administration and marketing grad had secured her realtor's license in Maryland, she decided to zig when Kyle signed with the San Francisco 49ers.
“I was really able to look myself in the mirror and be like, ‘Okay, what do you want to do? Do you want to go after real estate? Do you want to take this course all over again?’” she explained to Niners Nation in 2021. “It’s state by state, so I’d have to get my license over here.”
Instead, she decided to try to sew up a career in fashion. “Most of the members in my family are all entrepreneurs, starting their own businesses,” Kristin said. “I’ve always had the support from my family and inspiration from my dad and his brothers.”
<p>Mr. and Mrs. Juszczyk</p>
The New York native gained a permanent teammate on July 7, 2019, when she officially became Mrs. Juszczyk. (That's pronounced "‘use-check,'" she wrote on her Designs By Kristin site. "I know it looks like someone fell asleep on a key board.")
A year after their ceremony at Hudson Valley venue Cedar Lakes Estate, where they exchanged self-penned vows, she slipped back into her lace Berta gown with her tuxedoed spouse.
"Kyle and I decided to start a new tradition last night!" she wrote in the post that featured Vanderbilt Samoyed pup Mozzarella. "On our wedding anniversary we’re going to put on our dress and tux...and reflect on how much we’ve grown and changed from the previous year."
<p>Kicking Off a New Career</p>
She's got that good girl faith and a tight little skirt plus years of self-taught fashion knowledge. "My love for sewing was kind of instilled in me at a young age," Kristin explained on her site. "I spent countless nights crocheting with my grandma while watching Wheel of Fortune."
Though she set her needles down for "like 20 years" she said, she rediscovered her childhood love when creating a joint Britney Spears-Justin Timberlake Halloween costume.
Getting back in the groove to create some game day 'fits, "It felt incredibly rewarding transforming something that was heading to the donation pile, into something that felt completely new," she told E! News in 2023. "From there, I began to watch hours of YouTube tutorials on the basics of sewing. I definitely still have a long way to go, but I have really enjoyed every step of learning this new skill of mine."
These days its not uncommon for Kyle to catch her hard at work when he gets up at 3 a.m. for practice. Among her most beloved designs: "My all-time favorite would be the corset that I made out of footballs," she told E!. "My husband thought I was losing my mind when I told him my idea! I remember staring at a football that was sitting on our counter and thinking to myself, 'footballs are made out of leather, I can definitely make some type of garment out of this.' I am really proud of how seamless the football corset came together and even how comfortable it was to wear."
<p>Rooting Each Other On</p>
Kristin can usually be found in the stands rooting on the eight-time Pro Bowler, and he's returned the favor when it comes to her fashion career.
“I’m so proud of her,” he told reporters in the run-up to the 2024 Super Bowl. “I think she’s extremely talented, and the things she’s putting out there are one of a kind.”
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