Bay Area streetwear label Nostalgia featured by NFL Origins collection

By Loureen Ayyoub

Jaden Yo-Eco has come a long way since selling T-shirts out of the trunk of his car in 2017.

Now, the Bay Area fashion designer is reviewing final looks for the opportunity of a lifetime: a collaboration between his clothing brand, Nostalgia, and the NFL, ahead of Super Bowl LX.

Yo-Eco and Nostalgia co-founder Humbert Lee said they were initially stunned when the NFL reached out about partnering on its exclusive Origins collection.

“Humbert just called me and was like, ‘Yo, the NFL wants to collab with us,'” Yo-Eco said. “I thought he was just joking, but it became a real thing because they started sending over contracts, PDFs of what we can and can’t do. And I was like, damn, this is for real – it’s really happening.”

The NFL Origins collection highlights local brands with deep cultural ties to their communities. Only three brands were selected, a milestone Lee said validated the risks he and Yo-Eco took in choosing a nontraditional career path.

“Asian immigrants that are here, they want their children to go to college and be lawyers and doctors and stuff,” Lee said. “But we kind of took a different route.”

For Yo-Eco, that route was not always easy to embrace. Encouraged by his family to pursue a more traditional career in medicine, he initially put his creative ambitions on hold. That changed after his brother-in-law urged him to take a chance on his passion for fashion.

“I think for a lot of us Asian Americans, we’re scared to take certain risks because we don’t want to be looked at in a crazy way from our family and our friends,” Yo-Eco said. “So for us to be able to take on that chance, honestly, I feel like we even inspired a lot of people to do the same.”

Despite their growing national recognition, Yo-Eco and Lee said Nostalgia remains firmly rooted in its origins. The brand’s designs draw directly from their Asian heritage and Bay Area upbringing, blending cultural symbols and vintage looks with modern streetwear aesthetics.

“It proves to ourselves that we are on the right track,” Yo-Eco said. “And if we keep going, there’s going to be big things up ahead.”

Select pieces from the NFL Origins collection will be available for purchase online through the NFL Shop.