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When Donna Kelce wore a black and red denim jacket and During a pre-Super Bowl interview on Sunday, Monica Blakely cried at her home in Maryland.
Less than two weeks ago, Blakely Kelce had messaged on social media, offering to create a jacket that would represent her fan base for her sons, who would play on opposing teams in Sunday’s game. Jason is a center for the Philadelphia Eagles, and his younger brother Travis is a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.
To Blakely’s surprise, Kelce replied within minutes. Four days later, Blakely shipped a jacket and shoes with an even mix of Chiefs and Eagles colors to Kelce, who flaunted the outfit all week in Glendale, Arizona, and on the field at State Farm Stadium.
“Seeing my stuff on these networks is overwhelming. It is wonderful. It’s incredible,” Blakely, 36, told the Washington Post. “I can’t find the words to really describe the feeling because so many feelings are mixed together.”
After Blakely had her daughter, Ezra, in January 2013, she sought work with flexible hours. As a child, Blakely had loved arts and crafts projects, so in December 2013 she started a clothing and home decor business called Passion for Ezra.
Blakely was quick to incorporate her lifelong passion for the National Football League into her designs. From those early days, back in the basement of her parents’ home in Olney, Md., Blakely designed wreaths using the colors and logos of NFL teams. Blakely, a Washington Commanders fan, based her schedule around NFL games and their draft. Over the next nine years, word of mouth grew their business and Blakely opened offices in Olney and Columbia, Maryland.
After watching the Chiefs and Eagles qualify for the Jan. 29 Super Bowl, Blakely read about Kelce’s experience raising her NFL-bound sons. Blakely, who said she would do anything to help Ezra achieve her goal of becoming an actress, was referring to Kelce’s affection for her children.
“She’s the ultimate mom goal,” Blakely said. “She does everything a mother who absolutely loves her children would do. When I saw that passion behind it and that dedication to their kids, I thought, ‘I have to do this for them.'”
From her home in Columbia, Blakely said Jan. 31 that she messaged Kelce on five social media platforms with an offer: “I’d like to make you something. I think I have an idea of what would be perfect.”
Blakely didn’t expect an answer, but when Kelce agreed minutes later, Blakely got to work. She wanted the jacket to be symmetrical to reflect Kelce’s equal love for their sons. She cut a red and a black denim jacket in half and sewed them together.
She designed and painted logos for both teams and the sons’ numbers – 62 for Jason and 87 for Travis. On the back of the jacket, Blakely sewed the letters “KELCE” across the top, splitting the colors down the middle of the “L”. The names “EAGLES” and “CHIEFS” on the sleeves face each other to represent the teams’ Super Bowl showdown.
Blakely also made two pairs of shoes for Kelce, who wore the high-top sneakers on Sunday. The left shoe is gray and black and features an Eagles logo on the tongue and “62” on the vamp toe box. The right shoe is red and gold, with a Chiefs logo on the tongue and “87” on the toe box.
Kelce told Blakely that she doesn’t like glitter, but Blakely found another way to make the shoes shine. She added lights to the outsoles that light up with every step. The left shoe displays green lights; right shows red lights. All things considered, Blakely said she worked on the outfit for about 30 hours.
Blakely said she mailed the articles to Kelce’s agents on February 4. She worried Kelce wouldn’t like them or wear them, but within a day, Kelce received the package and expressed her appreciation, Blakely said. Kelce indicated the jacket ESPN on Tuesday and discussed it in interviews with GQ and Today last week.
A photo of Kelce in clothes before the game went viral on Twitter on Sunday, and she donned it while giving On-site interviews before the game. Blakely was so grateful to Kelce that she and her husband Taylor merged their Super Bowl alliances with Kelce’s. Blakely backed the Chiefs; Taylor rooted for the Eagles.
Over the years, Blakely has been filled with the reactions of her customers to her new clothes and the opportunities to donate masks at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. But Kelce’s outfit, which garnered international attention, gave Blakely even more validation. Blakely hopes the ad will lead to more opportunities to design apparel for NFL players and their families, which she believes is her dream job.
“It’s 10 years of hard work,” Blakely said. “…I started in my parents’ basement and now I have stuff in the Super Bowl.”