Travis Kelce’s suit designer Tom Marchitelli on dressing top NFL athletes
When Travis Kelce’s not turning heads with ‘tunnel ‘fits’ from luxury labels like Louis Vuitton and Bottega Veneta, he’s likely sporting a custom suit by Tom Marchitelli of Gentleman’s Playbook, whose client list includes 500 pro athletes (and counting).
And as Marchitelli tells Page Six Style, the pair’s nearly decade-long working relationship began with a good old-fashioned Instagram DM.
“He slid right in — I’m so proud to say that,” the menswear designer says, adding that Kelce had admired the suit he’d made for Kansas City Royals players Eric Hosmer to wear to the White House after the team won the World Series in 2015.
“Travis texted [Hosmer] and said, ‘Who made you that suit? I need that guy. And the next day, Travis DMed me and he said, ‘Hey, I heard you’re the guy. I need you to come tailor me for some suits.’”
Always one to “strike while the iron is hot,” as he puts it, Marchitelli met up with Kelce at his New York City hotel, dressed in a two-tone plaid suit that earned him instant compliments from the tight end.
“I knew that he wanted the fabrics that no one else would have. He was one of the first that really pushed me into [wilder looks],” the sports stylist says. “He’s always had that eye to really push the envelope and wear things that got people talking, because that’s what he loves to do.”
Case in point? The eye-popping “neon green” suit Marchitelli made for Kelce to wear to the 2020 Super Bowl in Miami.
“For Miami, obviously, we had to go crazy tropical,” he recalls of the look, which Kelce paired with triangular Saint Laurent sunglasses and a patterned silk shirt unbuttoned low enough to show off his triple-layered diamond chains.
Most recently, Marchitelli outfitted Kelce and his teammate Chris Jones for their photoshoot announcing the Chiefs’ playoff captains last month, marking the second straight year he’s dressed the duo for the major moment.
“I love that Travis wore that pinstriped suit, because people are so used to seeing him in the really unique, out-of-the-ordinary prints and fabrics and materials,” he said of the surprisingly classic choice, adding that “he still kept it Trav with the sneakers.”
Marchitelli’s personal favorite suit he’s made for Kelce, however, is his royal blue paisley number from the 2018 ESPYs — which wasn’t the tight end’s first choice for the evening, as it turns out.
“For that red carpet, Travis asked me to make him a short suit. It was LA; it was 100 degrees,” he says. “I’m not in the business of telling anybody no — especially Travis Kelce — but I said, ‘Trav, I can’t do it. A short suit is not it right now. You’re a huge guy, you’ve got great legs, but it’s inelegant for a red carpet.’”
After convincing Kelce that the blue paisley was the “better move,” the pair arrived on the red carpet — only to discover that six other players were wearing short suits.
“He looks at me at he goes, ‘You were right, Tom.’ Imagine being one of seven in short suits! He doesn’t want to be grouped in any type of category. He’s in his own league.”
And while Marchitelli’s influenced Kelce’s style during their time working together, it goes both ways; the tailor’s adopted the tight end’s habit of rubbing his hands together on the red carpet, a move he calls “so flattering to the suit.”
“I asked him once. I said, ‘You know, ‘What’s going on with with the hand pose?’ And he said, ‘It’s accentuating the cut of the suit, it’s really flattering and it shows off a muscular build.’ I do that in all my videos without even thinking now, because I want to show off the fit that I’m creating for my my clients and for myself. And I always think of Trav when I do it.”
Should wedding bells ring for Kelce and girlfriend Taylor Swift, by the way, Marchitelli’s ready to clear his schedule to craft the perfect tux.
“I’ll be in line behind Christian Dior, Tom Ford, Thom Browne, Louis Vuitton, Amiri and everybody,” he quips.
It’s hard to believe that just about 10 years ago, Marchitelli was working as an accountant at an NYC hedge fund rather than designing menswear for sports megastars.
He’d always had a flair for fashion, however, and started his Gentleman’s Playbook Instagram account to show off his own custom suits procured from local tailors — always cropping his head out of the shots he posted, so as to keep the focus on his ‘fits. Within a year, he’d amassed 100,000 followers.
“Athletes started following me like crazy,” he recalls.
One was former NFL quarterback Chase Daniel, who DMed Marchitelli and became his first famous client.
“He said, ‘I wanna look like the guy in the pictures. Can you make me look like him?’” he tells us. “I said, ‘I love that you said that. I’m the guy in the pictures.’”
After learning how to take a client’s measurements with help from a Los Angeles tailoring shop — the same one that produces all his designs to this day — Marchitelli flew out to Kansas City to fit Daniel for his wedding suit.
Word of his work traveled fast within NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and WWE locker rooms, and Marchitelli’s client list exploded; soon, he quit his day job to focus on fashion full-time.
As he grew increasingly busy, however, he maintained his commitment to top-tier service, flying to meet each new customer at their home or team headquarters, fit them in person and present them with fabric options. And while he says the “standard turnaround” for one of his bespoke suits is three weeks, he’s “done 24 hours countless times” for clients in a rush.
Of course, such service doesn’t come cheap; Marchitelli’s suits are typically priced between $3,000 and $4,000 each, and “sometimes it can go over that,” he says. And unlike many brands, he doesn’t gift his designs or offer discounts in exchange for social media or on-air shout-outs.
“I always say the guys are paying for the best fabrics, fit and service — the personal service that I provide. I’m at your door the next day, right? If it’s across the country, doesn’t matter, I’m there,” he says.
And those prices certainly don’t seem to deter his most loyal clients, like Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, whom he met while waiting in a hotel lobby ahead of the 2017 NFL Honors.
“He walked over to me and opened my suit jacket and said, ‘Who made this?’ I said, ‘I made it.’ And he reached out his hand and goes, ‘I’m ready to buy right now,’” Marchitelli recalls. “He changed my business forever.”
Prescott now owns around 150 of Marchitelli’s custom suits, and has never repeated a single one for eight seasons straight. What’s more, you’ll never spy anyone else wearing one of his bespoke Gentleman’s Playbook designs.
“Everything made for Dak is one of one. Everything made for Shannon Sharpe is one of one,” Marchitelli says, name-checking another of his VIP customers.
“[Sharpe] made sure to let me know: ‘Tom, I don’t even want to see a fabric that you’re putting on [me] on any other NFL player. And he deserves that, because Shannon is the best-dressed man on all television, in my opinion, and has been for years.”
Other loyal clients of Marchitelli’s include Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen — “He’s engaged to Hailee Steinfeld, and I sure hope I get the nod for that wedding,” he quips — and Atlanta Falcons safety Justin Simmons, whom he calls “one of my supermodels.”
“He’s built like a mannequin,” Marchitelli explains. “And when I go fit guys in other sports, they pull up pictures of Justin more than anyone.”
After all, while the suit savant says helping the “superheroes” of the pro sports world raise their fashion profiles is his favorite part of the job, he’ll be the first to acknowledge how cutthroat his clients can be when trying to one-up each other with their tunnel walks.
“It’s a sport within a sport,” he says. “I like the competitiveness, and I want [them] to try to out-dress [each other], because guess who wins? Me, every time.”
