The NFL Is Turning Disney Characters Into Football Merchandise

Somewhere in a design meeting this year, someone decided the Las Vegas Raiders should be Darth Vader. Not a Raiders logo next to Vader. Vader himself, silver and black, menace built right into the team's identity. That's the actual pitch behind the Disney | Champion NFL Collection, and once you start looking at the full list of pairings, it's clear nobody involved was taking this lightly.

The Philadelphia Eagles got Doctor Doom, armor and cape reworked into midnight green. The Los Angeles Rams got Sulley from Monsters, Inc. The San Francisco 49ers, in maybe the deepest cut of the whole collection, got Stinky Pete the Prospector from Toy Story 2, a nod to the Gold Rush that gave the team its name in the first place. New England got Captain America. Dallas got Woody.

All 32 teams, each one paired with a character from Disney, Pixar, Marvel or Star Wars, based on what the design team called the traits and fan culture that define each franchise.

This isn't really about hoodies

The collection launched in full on August 24 after a preview drop at Fanatics Fest in New York back in July, where Roger Goodell showed up alongside Tom Brady and Emmitt Smith for something called the Disney Fan Draft. Prices run from about thirty bucks for a kids tee up to around $130 for adult hoodies, sold through Fanatics, the NFL's own shop, Disney's store and select retailers. Standard merchandise math on the surface.

Except this collaboration sits inside something bigger. Disney and ESPN have been building toward what they're calling their Year of the Super Bowl, a full calendar of programming leading up to ESPN's first ever Super Bowl broadcast in February.

The apparel line isn't a standalone marketing stunt, but rather one visible piece of Disney trying to weave itself into NFL culture at every level it can reach, from the actual broadcast rights down to what a nine-year-old wears to school.

Selling fandom, not just football

What makes this genuinely clever, whether or not you find it a little much, is who it's actually aimed at. A hardcore Raiders fan doesn't need Darth Vader to buy a hoodie. But a kid who's never watched a full football game and absolutely loves Star Wars might. Same for whoever's been dragged to three Marvel movies this year and suddenly notices Captain America repping the Patriots.

The NFL has been chasing younger and more casual audiences for years, and pairing every single team with a character from one of the most recognizable entertainment libraries on the planet is about as direct a route into that audience as exists.

It also says something about where sports merchandising has drifted more broadly. Teams aren't just selling loyalty to a laundry anymore. They're selling entry points, and increasingly those entry points have nothing to do with the actual sport being played.

Genuinely though, whoever decided the Raiders needed to be Darth Vader deserves a raise. Now somebody just needs to explain to the Buccaneers fanbase why they got stuck with Captain Hook.