6 things to know about Jason Kelce’s Underdog Philadelphia clothing line

The Philadelphia Phillies tanked the World Series and the Philadelphia Union blew its championship game, but the Philadelphia Eagles is the sports team that keeps on giving.

Not only are our beloved Birds riding high on an 8-and-0 season, the team’s offensive giant and fan favorite, Jason Kelce, launched his Underdog Philadelphia apparel collection at the Bok Building Sunday afternoon. Fans and corporate donors mixed and mingled with Kelce and many of his teammates including Lane Johnson, Avonte Maddox, Jordan Mailata, Fletcher Cox, Dallas Goedert, A.J. Brown, and Jalen Hurts. Jabari Banks, the West Philadelphia-bred star of Peacock’s Bel-Air, was also on the roof as well as politicians Malcolm Kenyatta and Allan Domb.

The unisex sportswear line, available exclusively at underdogphl.com, is a nod to the Birds’ 2018 Super Bowl win.

“Underdog embodies the city of Philadelphia, it’s a mentality,” Kelce said Sunday. “We aren’t going to listen to outside noise. We aren’t going to listen to anybody tell us who we are, how good we are, or how good we can be. We are going to go out there and prove it: Every. Single. Day.”

Word.

Here are six things every fan should know about Underdog Philadelphia.

It’s a nod to the Eagles’ Chris Long donning a German shepherd Halloween mask after the team’s NFL playoff win over the Atlanta Falcons in 2018. The Eagles made NFL history as the first team to be both a No. 1 seed and the underdog in the playoffs. The mask sold out on Amazon.

The Underdog Philadelphia Classic collection has a tote bag, hoodie, crewneck sweatshirt, beanie, T-shirt, and fanny pack. Most of the looks are unisex, but the T-shirt is available in a woman’s cut V-neck. Prices range from $35 for a T-shirt to $60 for a hoodie. Each piece is fashioned from 100% cotton, except the T-shirts, which are a supersoft cotton-polyester blend. Kelce went with neon green accents to celebrate the team’s colors with a little pop and attitude.

The Hungry Dog Collection references Kelce’s now-famous quote at the Super Bowl parade, “An underdog is a hungry dog.” The limited-edition T-shirts feature drawings of Brandon Graham, Brown, Johnson, Long, and Hurts. Would Kelce add an image of him as Fat Batman or of him hugging the Philadelphia Phanatic? Absolutely. But, he says, he wants the collection to celebrate all the things that make Philadelphia great, and that goes beyond sports.

Kelce partnered with REC Philly designer Bruno Guerreiro, who sketched the images of the players for the special-edition shirts. Hannah Westerman of Avenue West Design designed the Underdog logo. Underdog Philadelphia is manufactured by Philadelphia-based A-Best Swag.

All the printed words on the Underdog Philadelphia Classic apparel are in the typeface Evanston Alehouse in honor of the Philadelphia Bourse Commodities Exchange. The now-defunct company used that typeface in its logo.

The sales from Underdog Philadelphia apparel will fund Kelce’s nonprofit , (Be)Philly. “We want to do more than just help kids improve test scores, we want to help them improve their lives beyond school.” (Be)Philly is working with the newly merged Philadelphia Futures and Stepping Stone Scholars — which help children in 23 Philadelphia public schools with college prep through tutoring, test prep, and university visits — and Coded By Kids, which runs STEM programs for high school students. The goal is to give each organization $100,000 a year.