KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It's become a tradition at the NFL Draft. Prospects wearing high-dollar, high-fashion suits on stage.
"Look good, feel good, play good," Stephen Richards said.
After being selected, the athletes will open their coats to show off the inner linings of their suits, almost a metaphor to who they are on the inside.
"It's the biggest night of their life and I think they're wanting to show, one, their personality and, two, their story," Richards said.
That's where he comes in.
Richards owns Richards Bespoke, a custom clothing company in Nashville, Tennessee.
And custom clothing is all the rage at the NFL Draft.
"You just want to be different," Richards said. "You want to show that you're not the same as everyone else walking across the stage."
Richards fell into the Draft night tailoring game when Tua Tagovailoa's agent asked Richards to create a suit for the quarterback on NFL Draft night 2020.
Tagovailoa was thrilled when Richards informed him he could put whatever he wanted on the inner lining of his suit.
"He was like 'You mean whatever I want? Like pictures of my grandparents?' And I was like 'Yeah,'" Richards said.
The suit was made and then COVID-19 hit, and the Draft went virtual. The stage turned into a couch for the top prospects.
But that didn't matter.
"I had a bunch of people texting me, 'I saw the blue jacket. You had talked about it and there it was.' I mean, that was pretty cool," Richards said. "He loved the suit so much and the inside that he wanted to wear it for Draft day, so that was pretty special."
Tagovailoa shares the same agent as Patrick Mahomes, and while Richards didn't do Mahomes' Draft night suit (Mahomes watched the Draft from home), Richards now covers the body of the face of the NFL.
For instance, Richards did Mahomes' 2019 NFL Honors suit when Patrick brought home the NFL MVP Award. It featured a bold, bright, blue jacket.
Since then, Mahomes has had Richards style all of his suits for road trips. The wardrobe for each game is planned before the season begins.
"It's like he's found what his comfort zone is," Richards said about Mahomes. "And he's got a certain style of three-piece that is his favorite suit."
Richards says he makes many trips to Kansas City and Dallas to assure his star client is satisfied, and that Mahomes and other big clients will wear a suit just once.
"Because they're going to be on camera, whether it's on TV or pictures taken," Richards said. "They don't want to wear the same thing twice, especially if it's a little bit bolder."
