"It's a big moment:" NFL Origins celebrates authenticity in San Francisco for Super Bowl LX
- Kick The Concrete
- 23 hours ago
- 6 min read
The Bay Area is rich with history and culture. NFL Origins returned to the Super Bowl for its fifth season and helped celebrate the diversity of the host city, San Francisco. The Origins program uplifts local artists and designers via an exclusive merchandise capsule at the biggest game of the year.
This season for Super Bowl LX, the NFL tapped Aaron De La Cruz, Nostalgia and Black Scale to create T-shirts, jackets and more. The league invited each artist and designer to share their unique perspective on what it means to be from The Bay.
Credit: Victoria Hernandez/Kick The Concrete
The NFL Origins Collection was available at a one-day pop-up in the industrial Dogpatch neighborhood on the Thursday before the Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots in the championship game, and online for a limited time. As is tradition, the clothing was on display in a gallery-like event space crafted by longtime marketing executive Errol Andam. The event was complete with custom drinks — The De La Cruz (a blood orange margarita), Feeling Nostalgic (a vodka gimlet) and The Black Scale (a charred old fashioned) — appetizers, and sounds by Sake 1, who played Burna Boy and a selection of other smooth vibes.
Credit: Victoria Hernandez/Kick The Concrete
This year's Origins gallery was part of the NFL's first Culture Club, a four-day activation that embraced the intersection of sports and culture with art installations, panel discussions and more. It's clear the league has positive momentum from a successful NFL Origins program in New Orleans last season that was carried into San Francisco.
Aaron De La Cruz emphasizes authenticity in NFL Origins San Francisco
Aaron De La Cruz is a visual artist who embraces minimalism with lines and shapes. He created a collection called "Playbook" for his first time designing clothing. He once tried out for football and gave up on it after getting tackled hard. He remained a fan of the sport and this collaboration showed an art kid that he still has a place on the gridiron.
As the first artist in his family, De La Cruz wanted to show his two sons and his daughter that "art is a viable thing" and also how different industries can intersect. He used it as an opportunity to show them how to be true to one's self.
"The main thing that I've taught them is don't be afraid to speak up for ourselves," he told Kick The Concrete. "With this project, I was a little hesitant, not hesitant, but I was afraid that the NFL wouldn't want thumbs up to my design approach, which is not the obvious, which is not to blast it with 'San Francisco' or 'Bay Area' or stuff like that. I call them 'works' because this is how I approach a canvas or any one of the murals that I do or sculptures. And they were on board. So that gave me a sense of 'yes.'
"Because I've always carried that through life, be authentic and show my sons and my daughter that no matter how big of a stage you're on, just make sure that you are yourself. Because the moment you start lying, you can't go back. It doesn't feel genuine and I think people can see that, you can feel it."
His sons inspired the design because of a conversation after football practice about what the coaches were teaching them and showing them different routes. De La Cruz's work showcases the movement of the hands in a deconstructed way. So translating that to football, the most basic element is the play itself.
The designs of the "Playbook" collection bridge the past with the present. A black shirt with white lines references chalk on a chalkboard while a white shirt with black lines ($65.99) represents Expo marker on white board. Then there are gray pieces, including a hoodie ($135.99) that serve as a nod to the gray San Francisco fog.
De La Cruz salutes Bad Bunny for making history as the first artist to perform a halftime show set in Spanish and staying true to himself. He also applauds the pop icon for becoming the first artist to win Album of the Year for an entirely Spanish album with "DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS."
"Watching that acceptance speech, literally, I was like 'Oh my God,' it was moving," De La Cruz said. "It was really moving. It brought a little tear to my eye and I think moments like that, being an artist, I'm looking at this moment as an inward reflection, but hopefully my sons, or my family or whoever it is, my audience, feels that way too as well."
He sees their journeys of representing their cultures, Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican and De La Cruz is of Mexican heritage, as parallel. He was grateful the NFL embraced both of them.
"When Bad Bunny decided to take his stance on making sure that he's authentic to himself, everybody's like, 'Oh, is he going to sing in English?' He's like, 'No, I'm in Spanish,' I think I have that same kind of design approach as well," De La Cruz said. "It's like I have to make sure that what I'm doing, I'm not going to do something that I normally wouldn't do. I have to stay authentic to my voice.
"And the NFL Origins project, they really leaned into it and say 'Yes, we're on board with you too, as well. Be yourself. Don't feel like just because it's this moment, you have to do something that you normally wouldn't do.' You don't see too many Mexican players on the field, so this for me is another way to kind of just get my culture, Mexican fans, or whoever they may be, support the art, support the movement, support our culture. It's a big moment right now."
Nostalgia brings past to present for NFL Origins San Francisco
While De La Cruz's designs are more subtle about his hometown, Nostalgia has made their name by being unashamed about repping the Bay Area. When Jaden Yo-Eco and Humbert Lee were asked to be part of NFL Origins, it was a MUST.
"For us, there's just so much culture, so much inspiration just living in the Bay Area itself," Yo-Eco told Kick The Concrete. "So being able to showcase that with the NFL through our own clothing brand is just like a crazy feeling for us."
"We were born and raised in the Bay Area," Lee added. "There's so many different cultures here. It's so diverse and we draw a lot of influence from that. So it means a lot."
Nostalgia isn't just a name, but the word represents the identity of the brand. Yo-Eco and Lee reflected on childhood memories of family coming together around San Francisco 49ers games. Being a part of the Super Bowl in their hometown is a big step forward from that.
"It's like a full-circle moment for us because it's the Super Bowl," Yo-Eco shared. "So when my family and I would get together for a Niners game or something like that, it's on a bigger scale now that we're actually a part of the program that's going on."
"It's like family bonding," Humbert chimed in, "and us being able to be a part of that now instead of just watching it on TV, it's crazy."
Their collection is full of intentional details. A mesh practice jersey ($74.99) has a lace paisley shoulder detail paying homage to Vietnamese culture. A varsity jacket ($270.99) stands out to both Yo-Eco and Lee as their favorite piece. It features multiple patches and chain-stitch embroidery that was popular in the '80s and '90s, furthering the idea of nostalgia.
"For us, we wanted to find something that's super football-related, so the best thing possible would be a varsity jacket," Yo-Eco explained, "and then we just wanted to put our own blend with it. ... We wanted to carry a lot of things from the past and bring it over to the present time."