You never want to show up at a Broncos party looking like an old gray mare, and that’s why it’s important to wear the right colors and freshest style on Super Bowl Sunday, say Denver’s fashionable football fans.
“At this point, when you’re going to the Super Bowl, it’s not whether you’re just a fan — everybody is a fan now — but how committed you are,” said Lance McLauren, 33, of Denver, a “recovering” Green Bay Packers fan who grew up in Wisconsin.
McLauren and about two dozen other fans, mostly women, were shopping for the latest apparel at the Denver Broncos Team Store at Sports Authority Field at Mile High last week.
McLauren’s tab for a new jersey and cap? Nearly $80.
“That’s commitment,” said the office building security guard.
Judy Wheeler, 58, an administrative assistant for a downtown company, knows that commitment better than most.
She has drawers and closets full of apparel: jerseys, T-shirts, socks, jackets, caps, gloves, jewelry, you name it. Casual Friday at work means Wheeler dons orange and blue.
“You’ve got to keep your apparel updated,” she said.
Wheeler and her co-worker Brenda Martinez have hit up the Focus Sports Special Events Store on Denver’s 16th Street Mall every workday since the Broncos won the AFC championship, and they plan to go by again this week.
“They keep getting in new stuff, so we go on our lunch hour every day to see what they have,” said Wheeler, who has been a season-ticket holder since 2000 but a Broncos fan from her first days as a football consumer.
When she was in high school, her father explained the game to her while they watched Denver games on TV, she said. She wears that legacy on her sleeve.
Lots of people love to wear the team colors, and it’s not just wannabe pros bromanticizing their high school glory days.
Americans spend more than on sports logo apparel, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. Women account for 39 percent of those purchases.
Women , up from 41 percent during the regular season, according to Nielsen data.
Meanwhile, census data indicates women account for nearly 80 percent of household consumer spending.
With women spending, that represents a huge growth market for pro teams.
That prompted the website Fashionista to ask last summer: “Why is it for women?”
Jessica Farmer had two $28 orange T-shirts draped over one arm as she looked for a women’s No. 18 jersey, despite the heftier $108 price tag for the Peyton Manning jersey.
“I’ve got to look better than my kids,” the 40-year-old from Lakewood explained at the Dick’s Sporting Goods store in the Bel Mar shopping center. “And I’ve been a Broncos fan a lot longer.”
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or @joeybunch
