Looking for a stylish outfit to wear to the next Philadelphia Eagles game?

Pittsburgh-based fashion designer Kya Tomlin is here to help. Tomlin partnered with his NFL to create Kiya Tomlin X NFL. This is an officially licensed collection of chic game day apparel for women. Nearly 41% of her NFL fans are female.

“When choosing a team for the lineup, we knew it had to be a blend of AFC and NFC teams, but we also wanted a team with a similar weather climate to Pittsburgh,” Tomlin said.

“One obvious choice was the Eagles,” she added. “They have a similar climate to Pittsburgh and the team has a great color scheme of black, green, silver and grey.”

In addition to the Eagles, nine teams are available in the collection, including the Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Kansas City Chiefs, Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Commanders. The collection will expand to include other teams in 2023.

The 7-piece clothing collection is designed, milled and manufactured in the USA with a sustainable bamboo blend.

The limited edition collection starts at $69 and is available now at www.kiyatomlin.us. The collection will also be available at www.nflshop.com in October.

“I like fleece on sweatshirts. It’s a comfortable, soft fabric,” said Tomlin. “I wanted to incorporate that into the NFL collection.

“The collection itself offers unique pieces that you can wear in-game and mix and match with your usual wardrobe for work, dates, errands, hanging out with friends,” she added.

Tomlin, who is married to Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, is no stranger to football-inspired fashion. In her last few years, she’s been selling her own collection of black and gold looks, but this is the first time one of her collections has been officially licensed by her NFL.

However, Tomlin said he originally had no plans to start his own NFL collection.

“I’m not a football player and I’ve never worn that outfit. It just didn’t fit my personal style,” said Tomlin.

“When I got to Pittsburgh, I was always asked if I had my own store and did I sell NFL clothes in my store,” she said. I thought there might be some women who thought that, but that’s because it doesn’t suit their aesthetics.

“I took a chance and designed a Steelers-inspired black and yellow collection for women,” she added. I’ve made sure about getting a license. It’s been a few years, but the line is here.”

A native of New Jersey, Tomlin was interested in fashion from an early age. When she was ten years old, she asked her mother for a sewing machine. When she was in middle school, she started making all kinds of clothes, and in her high school she designed her own prom dresses.

“My mom sewed and had no interest in fashion at all, but she took home economics in eighth grade,” Tomlin said. “We read the sewing machine manual together and from there began making our own clothes for ourselves, friends and family.

“I even brought a sewing machine to college,” she added. She said, “I made clothes for my college roommate and my gymnastics coach and various events. That’s how I made extra money.”

After Tomlin graduated from the College of William and Mary, where he studied preliminary medicine, she got married. After learning that her husband wanted to be a college football coach, she learned that they moved frequently, making it difficult to apply to medical school.

Tomlin moved to Arkansas, Ohio, Florida, and eventually Pennsylvania. During her time in Ohio, she enrolled in the Fashion Design Program at the University of Cincinnati.

She later became a fashion designer and launched The Kiya Tomlin fashion brand in 2014.

In the fall, Tomlin unveiled the brand’s first plus-size collection. I also hope to launch my own fragrance in the future.

“What is unique about the Kiya Tomlin brand is that we are always thinking about reusing fabrics,” says Tomlin. “Because we manufacture in-house, we have better control over how things are arranged, minimizing waste and relocating fabrics elsewhere.

“For our main collection, when we launch new styles each season, we create them in small batches,” she said. “We look at how they sell and if they sell, we make more money.

“We use the same fabric throughout the collection, which is a blend of bamboo, cotton and spandex,” she added. “Then we just reassign that fabric to another design.”

Tomlin said his advice to future business owners is to pay attention to marketing your business.

“When I first started my business, all I wanted to do was create,” said Tomlin. “I didn’t realize how much of a role marketing had to play in my business.

“I thought that if I made something good, people would buy it, but people I don’t know wouldn’t buy it,” she added. “Marketing plays a big role in any business.”