Kristin Juszcyzk’s viral jackets got the attention of Vice President Kamala Harris last year.
A member of the 49ers family was caught up in a bit of media frenzy on Thursday morning. In an interview with Fox News Digital, designer Kristin Juszcyzk (wife of 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk) revealed that Vice President (and current Democratic Presidential Nominee) Kamala Harris, a 49ers fan, had tried to get one of Juszczyk’s jackets after her designs went viral during the 2024 postseason.
“During the Super Bowl, I got a text from my agent, and that’s when things were going crazy,” Juszczyk told Fox News Digital. “He was like, ‘Hey, the vice president wants a jacket.’ I’m like, ‘What company?’ He’s like, ‘The country.’”
Juszczyk has been a successful independent designer for years, but her work reached another level of celebrity when pop star Taylor Swift wore one of her jackets to watch Travis Kelce during the postseason. With a massive influx of orders and inquiries, Juszczyk was unable to answer every request, which meant Harris was unable to get a jacket.
“Unfortunately, at that time, I had no help and no ways of being able to make more stuff,” Juszczyk explained. “There was just no time. But that’s always a funny story that stuck out to me. I’m like, ‘This is going crazy. I got a request from the White House.’”
While Juszczyk did not make any political comments in regards to Harris’ request, Fox headlined their article on Thursday morning claiming she “shut down” Harris’ request, seemingly implying that she had no interest in working with the Vice President.
The article itself does not make the same claim as the headline, but headlines have far more reach in the social media age. Soon after publication, several other publications regurgitated that framing as the story was aggregated.
Frustrated by the development, Juszczyk posted three stories on Instagram criticizing the coverage. The first story was over the headline, while the following two included screenshots of her full quotes in the article.
“This is a completely loaded headline... if you read the article, I say that I had no help last year, so I couldn’t fulfill any last-minute request!”
“Please don’t just read headlines”
“It’s hilarious how news outlets create a completely misleading headline to push their own agenda”
Given how busy Juszczyk clearly was producing jackets during the postseason while she was also obviously following her husband on his path to the Super Bowl, her explanation is quite plausible. Now, with more than 1.1 million followers on Instagram and a business that seems to have capitalized on its viral moment, Juszczyk shouldn’t have any momentum stopped from a deceiving headline.
