There may be 32 teams in the NFL, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a more passionate group of fans than those who support the Philadelphia Eagles. The bond between the “Birds,” as they’re affectionately known, and the city of Philadelphia is second-to-none: the city becomes a sea of midnight green on Sundays when the Eagles take the field, the skyscrapers are lit in green when the Eagles are in the playoffs, and the franchise’s Super Bowl parade in 2018 has become the stuff of sporting legend.
Jimmy Gorecki, a proud Philly native, former pro skater and co-founder of JSP and Standard Issue Tees is one of those fans, and he describes his new collaboration with the Eagles as a “life achievement.” Growing up in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Gorecki essentially had no choice but to become an Eagles fan: three generations of his family would gather around the television to watch the Birds every Sunday, and even though he moved to California in 2007 to focus on his skate career and, eventually, his then-budding labels, Gorecki’s passion for the Eagles never diminished. Even today, he becomes teary-eyed discussing his love of the team, which has come full-circle from watching games with his grandfather — he’s now teaching his young daughter the nuances of Eagles fandom.
That passion is evident on the JSP x Philadelphia Eagles collaboration, which Gorecki says came from a conversation with Julian Lurie, son of team owner Jeffery Lurie, who reached out after seeing the JSP x Amorosos collaboration in 2022. That reachout resulted in a concise six-piece collection with sweatshirts and sweatpants in the Eagles’ classic kelly green and current midnight green shades, a black T-shirt and a New Era fitted hat, all spotlighted in a lookbook shot at Lincoln Financial Field, the team’s home stadium, and starring Philly skate legend Mark Del Negro alongside Swoop, the Eagles’ mascot.
This isn’t your standard, mailed-in “brand A meets sports franchise B” offering: Gorecki’s passion for the team, its iconography and its place in Philly culture is manifested in the designs, like clever logo flips that integrate JSP iconography with Eagles branding, a custom JSP hit in Eagles wordmark font, and even a “Go Birds” — Eagles’ fans longtime acknowledgment — hit, all brought together by quarterback Jalen Hurts‘ famous “rent is due every day” soundbite. “It’s inspiring to see this celebration of our past and our present come to life through this collaboration,” said Jen Kavanagh, the Eagles’ SVP of media and marketing. “Jimmy’s talent and passion for the Eagles are authentically woven into each item in the collection, and we’re excited to share it with our fans.”
Ahead of the collection’s launch, Gorecki sat down with Hypebeast at Lincoln Financial Field to discuss “the most important project I’ve ever done,” his goal of reaching different subcultures, key design points and core Eagles memories.1 of 9
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What’s it like for a Philly kid to be collaborating with the Eagles?
It’s a dream come true more than anything. JSP has done some really special projects over the years, but I can’t imagine any being more important than this one. The Eagles mean so much to the city of Philadelphia, and they meant so much to my family too — what happened on Sunday would always affect our Monday, and it’s been like that my whole life.
How do you communicate that bond between team and community through clothing?
When I was a pro skater, I was lucky enough to skate for several companies that did a great job of cross-pollinating, touching different subcultures, and I’ve always tried to do that with JSP: taking a message or vision from one realm and making it applicable to another one. The skaters I grew up with in Philly all loved a lot of things that you wouldn’t traditionally think a skater would be into. They were all avid Eagles fans. Love Park [a famous Philly skate spot] would be empty at 1 PM on a Sunday because everyone was watching the game. From a fashion standpoint, we’d all be skating in jerseys. There was never really a wall between skate and sports for us, so it’s not very hard for me to show these parallel worlds through the clothing. It’s just a celebration of all the different types of people that love the organization.
It sounds like it was an easy story for you to tell because it’s so near and dear to your heart.
Yeah, man. I just kept thinking of my earliest memories as an Eagles fan. What watching a game with my grandfather for the first time was like, what my first time coming to an Eagles game was like. I wanted a Randall Cunningham jersey so bad as a kid, but could never afford it, and when I got my first real skate check, that was literally the first thing I bought myself. It was a matter of bringing all those touchpoints together, figuring out the components of clothing that we make and drawing up designs that both myself and the Eagles could feel good about.1 of 4
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Obviously, you love the Eagles as a fan. As a designer, what about their iconography speaks to you the most and how did you communicate that?
The heritage. What that original eagle graphic means, and what it represents, and the history from the first logo to the current colors and wordmarks. That original kelly green shade and the current midnight green shade are both so seminal. When we first started working on the collection, we looked at it from a historical streetwear standpoint, and obviously the logo flip has always been a core piece of streetwear design, so I was like “let’s flip the new Eagles wordmark into a JSP graphic, and swap the football in the original Eagles logo out for a JSP banner. What pulled it all together, though, was getting Jalen Hurts’ blessing to have one of his quotes in the collection.
And that quote, “Rent is Due Every Day,” is used across the offerings. What about that statement resonates with you, and why did it make sense to highlight it here?
I kept thinking that Jalen loved the new wordmark as much as I do, so I was trying to think of things related to him that would make sense for the collection. At first I’d mocked up a couple of rent checks, but then I thought that some things just have to be spelled out — like how when a rapper, say Young Jeezy, would put out an album or a mixtape back in the day, he’d always wear a T-shirt with a phrase that directly relates to the project. Having grown up here and knowing how demanding life can be here, there’s no saying that’s more applicable to Philly people.
You could strip all the JSP branding and all of the collaborative flair away, and that saying could still live on the front or back of somebody’s shirt here in Philly, no matter if they’re going to work at Lincoln Financial Field or at a deli on South Street. Even if you move away, that grind, that hustle, always sticks with you and really informs who you are as a person. That’s why the hit is so big on the hoodies and tees. You could wear those pieces to any NFL game, and people will know that saying is a Jalen bar, a Philly bar.
What’s been the most unique part of the whole process?
Man, I don’t think I’ve ever been more dedicated to any project in my life. When we were about 45 days out from the release, my wife was like “just go to Philly [Gorecki currently resides in California] and give this project everything you’ve got so it comes out exactly how you want it to.” I’d like to think anyone else that grew up an Eagles fan would have done the same thing and given the same love and care to an opportunity like this, and that’s a testament to how passionate Eagles fans are about this team. 1 of 2
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Eagles fans definitely bleed green — there really aren’t any half-hearted ones.
Exactly. I want to make sure all of JSP’s collabs have real, personal substance to them, and are never collaborations just for the sake of collaborations. I want to work with brands and organizations that represent what I was raised on, and I’ve always felt a personal obligation to Philly because it did so much for me. I want to put that energy right back into the city for the next generation.
We don’t always have the largest media conglomerates paying attention to the young skaters, designers, creatives and resterauturs from here. We don’t have the biggest companies based here. There’s no Philly Fashion Week. What there is is a ton of talent and creativity, so shining a light on that whenever possible is extremely important to me, showing our community that they can take their light out to the world.
Honestly, man, when I look at all of the other NFL collaborations, this project is just better. Our team is better too, of course [laughs].
One more thing before we get out of here: give me your top three Eagles jerseys.
Third place is a tie between two Brian Westbrook jerseys, the midnight green and the Yellow Jackets. Number two would be that kelly green Randall Cunningham jersey. First is a tie as well, a tie between the black Brian Dawkins jersey and the kelly green Jalen Hurts jersey that just came out this year. Honestly, I’ll stick with the same jersey as long as they keep winning and switch when they lose [laughs]. Thankfully, I haven’t had to change jerseys much these past few years. AJ Brown got me through the majority of last season, and then a kelly green Michael Vick jersey from 2010 held me down for a while too.
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