Hey friends, it’s me again, your FiveFingered host. To all the newcomers, welcome! Who knew a pair of crazy shoes could bring us all together?
If you’re reading this and have no idea what I’m talking about, for my last newsletter I wrote a story about buying the wild Vibram shoes everyone’s obsessing over. Turns out people really enjoyed it!
A status update on how things are going: mother and baby doing well. I’ve worn them nearly every day, and had countless conversations about them with friends and strangers alike. I talked about my new life in the FiveFinger lane in a little more detail over on Vik’s Busy Corner, and kikied with Liana Satenstein, who also took the plunge. I even had a major newspaper get in touch!
Glad I managed to get my bombshell newsletter in before Emily Sundberg’s - a piece of writing which really set Substack alight. To summarise for readers who might not be as immersed in the Substack waters as I am (deep sea diving over here), Substack star Emily Sundberg (author of Feed Me, a brilliant business newsletter), took a break from her holiday to pen a very incisive piece about the platform, and the identikit nature of a lot of the newsletter content it churns out.
If you’re subscribed to this newsletter, I’m sure you’re also subscribed to many others as well - the medium has grown at an extraordinary pace over the last couple of years, thanks to the perfect storm of Substack’s easy and effective tools + an increasingly Wild West journalism landscape.
A lot of people read Emily’s piece, and a lot of people agreed. Equally, a lot of people were pissed off, accusing her of punching down and being snobbish about a platform that most people feel has put the fun(ds) back into writing. What did you think? I live for The Discourse, so let’s meet in the comments.
The two types of content Emily particularly maligned were listicles (‘5 things that will XX your XX this week’) or meandering, diary-style content. Luckily the following is neither of those! Instead it’s another podcast episode - one which furthers my ongoing fascination with wtfff is going on with fashion and sport, the world’s cosiest new BFFs.
My guest is this week is Kyle Smith, who leads the NFL’s fashion vertical - a role that spans everything from content strategy, styling, partnerships, working with players to build their fashion presence, and taking them to fashion week. Kyle is also the person behind star players Joe Burrow and Justin Jefferson’s runway turn at Vogue World, where Burrow dared to bare in a backless Peter Do suit (Kyle is also Burrow’s personal stylist).
The conversation around fashion and sport reached fever pitch over the past few weeks, anchored by LVMH’s 150 million Euro investment in the Paris Olympics. But whilst the Olympics might be over, the NFL is just warming up - the season kicks off in early September. As the sport’s global fandom continues to grow (aided in part by the well-documented Kelce-Swift union), I wanted to speak to Kyle about his unique position at the crossroads of these two industries, and get his perspective on this cultural shift. I hope you enjoy!
Don’t forget to subscribe for more Threads of Conversation. You can also listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and follow on Instagram and TikTok.
Some of the things we discussed…
Kyle front row with Joe Burrow and Justin Jefferson at Paris fashion week:
Styling Joe Burrow for Vogue World:
Runway ready:
A selection of last season’s best tunnel fits:
Threads of the week
Moved house! Still unpacking, so scribbled out the mess. A rare, Vibram-free day wearing a Dickies shirt, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake shorts and COS boots. Replaced the mom lanyard on my phone with a wrist strap from Knot Safe For Work.
Loose Threads
Want to read. If you haven’t heard of Riposte, I recommend the very first episode of
’s podcast with founder Danielle Pender.Speaking of cult literary projects with interesting women behind them, Climax Books is opening in NYC. Yes, Isabella Burley was featured in the cool-girl-red-hair roundup.
Final literary power woman - saving this to read when I can really savour it.
I thought brat summer was over, but did enjoy this.
Start your own Thread
Add your thoughts in the comments, and let me know whose Threads of Conversation you want to hear next!
A Thread about my career: NFL’s fashion strategist Kyle Smith