After working as an accountant for a hedge fund for eight years, Tom Marchitelli started a side business that soon became his full-time business.
Marchitelli started a custom menswear clothing business called Gentleman’s Playbook 10 years ago. Since then, he has gained about 500 clients, many of whom are professional athletes in the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and PGA Tour.
when athletic When we spoke with Marchitelli, he was heading to the Dallas airport after a meeting with a baseball player.
As a personal designer, stylist and tailor, Marchitelli hand-selects entire outfits for clients including Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. During the various preseasons of the various leagues in the United States, Marchitelli rarely stays in one city for long. In addition to working on clothing lookbooks for specific events, much of his work is focused on personalizing entire tunnel fit collections for the athletes he works with.
“Tunnel Fits” is a phrase used to describe the clothing sportsmen and women wear when they appear on the field of play (“fit” is an abbreviation for “outfit”).
Players typically arrive in the tunnel beneath the stadium dressed in their best attire, which is where the name comes from. Think of it as a pregame runway, where athletes across North American sports showcase their personalities through the clothes they wear.
While the most fashion-conscious athletes, like the Houston Texans’ Stefon Diggs and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, will go big, others prefer simplicity.
Stefon Diggs arrives for an NFL game this January (Perry Knotts/Getty Images)
Kyle Kuzma was in the former camp and is currently in the latter. The Washington Wizards forward recently announced his ‘retirement’ from Tunnel Walk after taking his game to the highest level with a selection that included a ridiculously oversized pink Raf Simons jumper and a black Rick Owens padded jacket.
“I don’t want to be part of that type of community where you have to ‘fit in.’ I’m really taking a backseat to all that,” Kuzma told Vogue in October.
Kuzma has traded in high fashion for sweatsuits of plain taste, but in Europe, soccer players are just now checking out the world of tunnel fits.
“This is a sport within a sport (in the United States),” Marchitelli says. “Social media plays a big role. That’s because every major sports team has a media representative who takes pictures of players as they enter the stands.
“It’s only been about eight years. When we first started, posting images of players arriving at a game on social media wasn’t a big deal in itself. And then it started to become noticeable.
Kyle Kuzma, pictured in 2022 (left) and 2021, ‘retired’ from intentional tunnel fit (Getty Images)
“You get to see up close and personal what athletes look like when they are out of uniform (team kit) and how they express themselves. And over time, players took more pride in how they went about their business.
“Another big factor driving this is competition between players. These people are trying to outdo the people on their team, the people on other teams across those sports, and even try to move on to other sports.
“When you come to the stadium you have a mandatory uniform, so you have no real options for self-expression other than shoes, cleats (boots) and maybe a wristband accessory. Or a headband. “But the clothes they wear to play allow them to express how they feel and how they want to look.”
Marchitelli may have a team in each of the men’s major sports leagues depending on the number of customers he has, but he doesn’t have a single professional soccer player, even though both MLS and NWSL teams have dabbled in this subcultural movement.
Tunnel fits are almost non-existent in European football. French international Jules Kounde has been leading the way in Barcelona in recent seasons with ensemble looks that combine vintage pieces with high fashion. However, this season Barça players will no longer be allowed to enter matches wearing their own clothes. This prompted Kounde, now a well-known face in fashion as well as football, to snap a photo of himself after the match to share with his followers on social media.
Most teams have a strict club sportswear only policy on match days and this is one of the main reasons why pre-match tunnel fits have not yet taken off in football.
So where is the individuality? The answer to this does not yet lie in the lower part of the stadium, but in the car park of the sports training ground. Starting training for club or national team has slowly evolved into a time when players across the men’s and women’s game can showcase their style in the form of an arrival fit.
In particular, playing for the national team has become a moment for athletes to prove their fashion skills.
Last month, Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate arrived at France’s training ground with a neon green hood over his face, while his international team-mate Marcus Thuram, who often wears Balenciaga and Chrome Hearts, is also among those paving the way.
Konate arrives for international duty with France in October (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
Players from Argentina, Belgium and Portugal are three standouts that consistently emerge. Meanwhile, England, whose players include Louis Vuitton brand ambassador Jude Bellingham, are still strutting around in team-supplied Nike tracksuits, proving the trend hasn’t completely caught fire everywhere.
“It was probably 2022 when that (wearing) wave really started,” says Jordan Clarke, founder of Footballer Fits, a platform that celebrates football player fashion.
Clarke noticed that Premier League side Crystal Palace had started posting pictures of their players arriving at their south London training ground wearing his clothes on Instagram. Footballer Fits and Palace teamed up via an Instagram post after talks with the club began, showcasing the products the players have been wearing ever since.
“Now we’ve done it with Chelsea, Nottingham Forest, Anderlecht in Belgium, we’ve done it a lot at Brentford, we’ve done it with Crystal Palace Women, we’ve done it with Chelsea Women. “There are so many.” Clark said. Let’s hope the arrival fit is a precursor to tunnel fits becoming a common sight in football.
“I don’t want to leave anyone out, but we’ve worked with so many clubs and now Liverpool, Newcastle United and Manchester City might not work with us, but they are doing it (themselves) and it’s amazing to see it now.
“With training, the pressure is much less. They (the club) can release the pictures during the week and whatever happens at the weekend, unless you are an extremely negative person, I don’t think people will link what the players wore to training as the reason they lost. do. ”
Siobhan Wilson is one of the players featured on Footballer Fits’ Instagram page in collaboration with her club Birmingham City Women, and she welcomes the break from traditional pre-match sportswear.
“It actually annoys me, especially when I look at what they’re doing in the WNBA.” The 30-year-old Jamaican international said with a smile. “I wish we could do something like that here. They want us all to look like clones of each other, and that’s okay.”
Wilson used to deliver mail while playing part-time for Palace. She is now pursuing a full-time playing career for Birmingham, who are top of the Division 2 Championship, while also serving as a fitness influencer to her 1.3 million followers on TikTok.
“It’s great for fans to see players express themselves through the clothes and style they’re wearing,” she says. “I think it will be a work I want to see more of because that way, I can see people’s personalities.
“I think the fit is good and the shoes make you feel good. But I also understand the other side (players arriving in uniform tracksuits). It’s a team game. You’re there to play as a team, so I understand from that perspective, but if you wear your own clothes and feel comfortable in what you’re wearing, you can be yourself a little more.”
Martin Odegaard and Arsenal arrive in team gear for their match against Chelsea this month (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Algen Hamilton is a designer and stylist from South London.
His break in the fashion industry came when he began styling looks for his footballer friend, Fulham winger (on loan from Arsenal) Reiss Nelson, whom he met at primary school when he was four years old. Hamilton’s client list includes Trevoh Chalobah (Crystal Palace, on loan from Chelsea), Kai Havertz (Arsenal), Joe Willock (Newcastle), Ben Chilwell (Chelsea) and Mateo Kovacic (Manchester City).
“I will continue to work with them throughout the season, wherever they want to be, whenever we have events, award ceremonies, and whenever we go to premieres,” explains Hamilton, 24. “As far as arrival fit, the looks are generally from a wardrobe I’ve created and will update several times a year.
“I start by talking about what they want to wear, what kind of vibe we want, and where we’re traveling if it’s different than before. Then I will go and make the costume and send you a message. They will tell you what outfits they like.
“For example, I’m working with Trevoh right now. “We made a bunch of clothes that he picked out, and we also have brands that he likes to gift items to in the winter.”
Amadou Onana (left) checking in on the Belgian mission in 2023 (Nico Vereecken/Photo News via Getty Images)
Hamilton, who has been working full-time with Chalobah since 2021, has seen the relationship between football and fashion develop first-hand.
“When I first started, players didn’t dress up like they do now. We are not only talking about the Premier League, but also La Liga (Spanish league) and Bundesliga (German top league). )” he says.
“Also, brands don’t really partner with football players. As time goes by, their popularity has grown and supporters are pounding the players outside the training ground and off the pitch. I think there are more opportunities like that happening now. Players are more open about their fit and want to show off their fit.
“We’ve seen the game change little by little and it’s only a matter of time before it gets to the same stage as the sport in America. But let’s not mix progress with step forward, because while seeing the team do so may be a step forward (great for post-arrival social media), a team changing their mind doesn’t mean real progress.
“The Premier League is very traditional. They will probably be the last league to change things.
“It would be good if progress made sense. “Rather than seeing it (wearing the arrival uniform) as a distraction or a moment where the players are not focused on the team goal, they see it as an opportunity for the players to express themselves.”
deeper
Football players, models and the power of expression
(Top photo: Getty Images, design: Kelsea Peterson)
