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Commentary February 19, 2025

Eagles Super Bowl Win Offers Fun & Valuable Promo Lessons

Take inspiration from apparel, headwear and print products that are showing up everywhere in a city that loves to celebrate big victories.

By  Brendan Menapace

Key Takeaways

• Product Trends: Major championship wins, like the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory, prompt fans to eagerly buy commemorative gear, such as apparel, headwear and collectibles, showcasing product trends relevant to promo.

• Innovative Branding: Companies like Bud Light capitalized on unique branding opportunities by integrating their products into victory rituals, such as providing branded ski goggles for players during locker room celebrations.

• Kitting & Micro-Moments: The concept of kitting, offering a collection of themed products, remains popular among fans. Additionally, leveraging micro-moments, like A.J. Brown’s book reading, can create engaging and memorable promotional items that resonate with the fan community.

The confetti and litter have been (mostly) cleaned up. The metal barricades are off the streets, and Philadelphia is down at least one pole, as citizens mistook it for a party favor – or decided that pulling it down was easier than climbing it.

Yes, the Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions, and more than 1 million of the club’s notoriously rowdy fan base descended on the City of Brotherly Love to celebrate before, during and after the parade in a sea of green (both kelly and midnight).

Eagles Superbowl parade

The Eagles-branded bus, with the word “Champions” emblazoned across the side, makes its way through adoring crowds in Philadelphia.

If a major championship win does anything for the promotional products industry, it shows what sorts of products across different categories people want – typically together. In the euphoria of victory, fans flock to websites and shops to buy gear commemorating the win – apparel, headwear, collectibles, toys, decorations – you name it. If it has the team logo on it, they’ll probably want it.

So, it’s a good way to get a sense of what sort of items are trending at the moment among sports fans and beyond. And we can look to the throngs of Eagles fans lining Broad Street this week for a few clues.

Rope Hats

The adjustable cap has gone through a few trendy permutations over the last decade and a half or so. In the early 2010s, it was all about the structured snapback. Then it was the floppier “strap-back” or “dad hat.” The early 2020s brought back the trucker cap, and if this year’s Eagles clubhouse celebration is any indicator, the next few years will be all about the rope cap.

With a snapback, embroidered team logo on the front and Super Bowl LIX logo on the side, the hat also features a contrasting rope across the brim.

The embroidery on the side was also prevalent in the 2024 NFL draft cap – another major event for headwear trend-spotting.

Eye Protection

After the trophy is handed out on the field, the real party starts in the locker room, and it’s usually a shower of champagne and beer suds. Over the years, athletes have turned to ski goggles as a way to keep the bubbles out of their eyes. This year, Bud Light made sure to keep the players’ eyes clear with fully branded goggles that made their way to the parade float and Art Museum steps, too.

Eagles defensive rookie and now fan favorite Cooper DeJean accidentally took his own necklace pendant to the forehead during the parade, and Bud Light gently reminded him to keep his goggles on next time (for protection as well as brand visibility).

Your clients don’t need to win a championship to implement something like this. What Bud Light did right here was recognize something players are doing anyway – notice that they aren’t using branded products, and put two and two together.

Bud Light saw a space that was prime for imprint and turned a ritual into a commercial.

If only Eagles GM Howie Roseman were wearing them when he took a flying beer can to the dome.

The Power of Kitting

Ask anyone in Philly, and they’ll tell you that this win feels better than any holiday or birthday. With that, the best gift they could receive is a whole assortment of products to mark the big moment in history.

Kitting really took off during the pandemic, especially as a way for sports franchises to connect with fans and ticket holders while the stadiums were locked up.

Thankfully, Eagles fans were able to get up close and personal with their heroes, but the idea of an all-in-one gift is still applicable.

The WinCraft Eagles kit includes a pennant, double-sided lanyard, double-sided 12 oz. can cooler, double-sided locker room towel and a three-pack multiuse decal set.

Eagles Superbowl merch box

The WinCraft Philadelphia Eagles LIX Champions Hard Goods Themed Gift Box

Micro-Moments & Perfect Binding

Eagles Wideout A.J. Brown was spotted reading a book on the sidelines during the Wild Card round matchup against the Green Bay Packers. The book turned out to be Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life by Jim Murphy. After that little moment, Eagles fans not only swooped in to buy the book themselves but also incorporated the fun bit into the playoffs and eventual Super Bowl run.

For example, people printed out the cover to use as a costume and even a flag in the ensuing chaos after the big win.

Someone even took the idea and made a custom blanket.

The official merch store referenced it with a “Book Club” A.J. Brown T-shirt. It’s sort of a wink-wink, “If you know, you know” inside joke for fans. And that’s part of being a fan, right? The community aspect.

Again, you and your customers don’t need to achieve excellence on the gridiron to pull an important takeaway from this. When something makes a wave of any size in pop culture, you can potentially capitalize on it by turning it into merch. Print-on-demand and direct-to-film decoration capabilities make this easier and with less risk of dead stock for when the cultural cachet of the reference disappears.

Eagles t-shirt

Reviewing the Tape

As Philadelphia returns to a state of relative normalcy (it’s a fun place), the promotional products industry can look at the big game and its big celebration for inspiration and ideas for their own campaigns – no matter the customer or size.

It boils down to paying attention to the details and finding places for branding where others might not see them. It requires thinking about the end-user and what they really want. What will resonate with them the most? What will make them feel like they received something specifically for them?

Recognize the branding opportunities, analyze every decorate-able surface, keep up-to-date on the latest trends – even when they’re retro – and don’t be afraid to mix and match different product categories together for a sweeping promotional experience.

And last, but perhaps most importantly, Go Birds.

P.S.: Try to spell things right.

Brendan Menapace

Content Director, Print & Promo Marketing

Brendan is the content director for ASI's Print & Promo Marketing media brand, which brings together the promotional products, apparel, commercial print and product decoration industries. His coverage includes in-depth company and personal profiles, trend pieces, and multimedia content.