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Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift gear in demand ahead of Super Bowl
The “Taylor Bowl” is what Maddie Schmitz, owner of Something Sweet by Maddie Lu in Coon Rapids, is calling this Sunday’s contest.
COON RAPIDS, Minn. — An ignitable cake burns away a Kansas City Chiefs logo to reveal pop superstar Taylor Swift ‘s image underneath. Prayer candles feature the Grammy winner and her star tight end boyfriend Travis Kelce. Sweatshirts are emblazoned with “Kelce’s Best Catch” and “Go Kansas City Swiftie.”
With the Chiefs preparing to face off against the San Francisco 49ers in Kansas City’s fourth Super Bowl appearance in five years, stores can hardly keep in stock any of the caps, sweatshirts and other odds and ends (some odder than others) commemorating the sports and pop crossover romance.
Highlights of their courting are featured in the merch. On tour in Buenos Aires, for instance, Swift changed a lyric in her song “Karma” from “Karma is the guy on the screen” to “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs.” Now Karma sweatshirts are proliferating, part of the surge of Chiefs merchandise hitting store shelves in Kansas City and far beyond.
The “Taylor Bowl” is what Maddie Schmitz, owner of Something Sweet by Maddie Lu in the Minneapolis suburb of Coon Rapids, is calling this Sunday’s contest in Las Vegas.
The self-described Swiftie is behind the ignitable, so-called burn-away cakes. She uses an edible image printer with edible inks to print the Chiefs- and Swift-themed images on two sheets of — you guessed it — edible paper.
“A lot of women are ordering these in secret and then bringing them to the Super Bowl party to surprise their husbands because it is a whole Chiefs-themed cake on the outside, but then on the inside, reveals the Taylor Swift love that all of the females seem to have for her,” Schmitz said.
She isn’t the only romance confectioner. Dolce Bakery, in the suburb of Prairie Village, Kansas, has an entire “Swiftie Collection” of heart-shaped cakes it is hawking.
“I think it’s amazing,” said Katie Mabry van Dieren, owner of Shop Local KC, which sells merchandise made by local artists, including the Karma sweatshirts. “I have never shipped so many items from our stores to different states.”
She said she thought the busiest weekend would be when Kansas City hosted the NFL draft in April. But she said Swift’s The Eras Tour concert stop at Arrowhead Stadium over the summer blew that away.
The July concert also was what set the stage for the relationship. Kelce was thwarted in his effort to woo the superstar with a friendship bracelet. But the romantic gesture, and public admission of defeat on his “New Heights” podcast, caught Swift’s attention nonetheless. It also fueled a hot market for Chiefs-themed friendship bracelets.
“I hope Taylor and Travis stay together forever,” van Dieren said. “That would be great for us.”
About 73% of adults say they plan to watch the game this year, about 10% higher than in recent previous years. And the romance that has been dominating headlines throughout the NFL season might be helping drive interest.
Pre-game news conferences are sprinkled with questions about the songstress.
After Swift earned her fourth career Grammy for album of the year on Sunday, Kelce vowed that he has to “bring home some hardware.” Even NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was asked a few times about Swift, who was front-and-center in the stands when Kelce scored a touchdown while leading the Chiefs to a 17-10 victory over the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC title game.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said the city has been lucky to have experienced the economy jolt. “She is welcome,” he said in a pre-playoff statement, “to stay forever.”
Anything Swift wears is particularly hot. For instance, a ring bearing Kelce’s jersey No. 87 is backordered after it was spotted on Swift’s finger.
The ring’s maker, Emily Bordner, from eb & Company, suspects that Donna Kelce bought the ring for her son’s star-studded sweetheart. The Kansas City store also gave the superstar of NFL moms (her oldest son, Jason Kelce, is a center for the Philadelphia Eagles) a pair of sold-out earrings bearing her youngest’s number on a Chiefs jersey. Swift has since been spotted wearing those, too.
It’s been all hands on deck ever since, with Bordner’s husband, mother and all her friends enlisted to help out.
“Bananas,” she said. “It’s been absolutely bananas. I don’t think I’ve ever worked this hard in my entire life, hands down. Absolutely not.”
At Westside Storey, it all started when Swift placed an order last fall. She later was spotted wearing a hat and sweatshirt the Kansas City boutique sent her, recalled Chris Harrington, the store’s owner. He said he initially thought the flood of business would be short-lived, just a fun story to share when the mania ebbed.
“People talk about the Taylor Swift effect, and you hear about it or read about it or whatever, but to like, personally experience it, you know, is is another level,” he said, adding that it is “almost becoming like an identity of the store.”
The store generally does well when the Chiefs do, but this year is far busier than other recent Super Bowl years. Harrington credits the couple’s star power, saying it has elevated everything to a “global level.” Often, he added, customers are on a mission.
“They were sent from their sister in Philadelphia to just buy a product in the store that Taylor shopped at,” he said. “So it’s crazy.”
He acknowledges that “everybody has an opinion” on the romance. But, he adds: “I love it for a million reasons.”
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The event takes place during October with a passport offering discounts at 15 vintage stores and shops across Minneapolis and St. Paul.
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Are you into vintage things? If so, October is your month!
The Vintage Fall Crawl is an event that runs from Oct. 1 to 31, celebrating and uplifting vintage stores and shops across the Twin Cities. This is the third year patrons can buy a Vintage Fall Crawl Passport, which offers a one-time 10% discount at 15 different shops owned by women.
Passports are $10, and all proceeds from their sales will be donated to the YWCA St. Paul + Minneapolis, a non-profit working to eliminate racism and empower women.
Rebecca Sansone, owner of The Mustache Cat in Minneapolis, dropped by KARE 11 News at Noon to talk about the crawl and the importance of knowing that your shopping dollars are doing good in the community.
Here are the 15 businesses participating in the Vintage Fall Crawl.
- The Mustache Cat
- Moth Oddities
- Style Society
- Tandem Vintage
- Carousel and Folk
- Up Six Vintage
- The Golden Pearl Vintage
- Audrey Rose Vintage
- Betty’s Antiques
- Olio Vintage
- Encore Boutique
- Succotash Retro
- Love Token
- Turquoise Vintage
- Queenie + Pearl
For more information on the event, check out the Vintage Fall Crawl website or Instagram account.
Mason Hermann of Woodbury says he was peacefully protesting outside the MPD 3rd precinct on May 27, 2020 when an officer shot him in the head with a projectile.
MINNEAPOLIS — A Twin Cities man has filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and its police department, alleging an MPD officer shot him in the head with a non-lethal projectile during a peaceful protest following George Floyd’s murder.
Court documents lay out the allegations by Mason Hermann, who claims he suffered life-changing injuries during the protest outside the MPD’s 3rd precinct on May 27, 2020.
The lawsuit – filed Sept. 29 in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis – says Hermann was part of a group calmly protesting the deaths of Floyd and other Black citizens on that day when an MPD officer perched on the roof of the precinct purposely targeted him without warning, firing a non-lethal 40mm projectile directly into the left side of his head.
Hermann said he was not in a restricted area, had not displayed aggression, was unarmed, and was given no commands by police before the shot was fired. The lawsuit said as he traveled home from the protest that evening he noticed “a progressive decline in his neurological functioning.”
He was eventually transported to a hospital in River Falls, Wis., and then transferred to Regions Hospital in St. Paul where Hermann was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury.
The lawsuit claims that since that day, Hermann has experienced a decline in his mental health, struggling with short-term memory loss, headaches and fatigue. The plaintiff says his injuries have impacted his daily functioning and interpersonal relationships.
To support their case, Hermann’s legal team documents multiple lawsuits Minneapolis has settled with others who alleged police misconduct and violation of their First Amendment rights, also noting that a probe by the Department of Justice found that MPD has engaged in a persistent pattern of conduct that deprives residents of their constitutional rights.
Mason Hermann is seeking a jury trial and asking for financial compensation to be determined by jurors that includes special and compensatory damages, attorneys fees and injunctive relief forcing the city of Minneapolis and MPD to stop engaging in unconstitutional or otherwise unlawful policies, practices and customs.
The officer was chasing a suspect on U.S. 40 in August 2024 when he slammed into the driver’s side of a car, killing Barbara and Bennie Williams.
PLAINFIELD, Ind. — A report by Avon police says a Plainfield officer chasing a suspect was going 100 mph seconds before a crash that killed a couple from Clayton, Indiana, in August 2024.
According to the report, the officer slammed on the brakes 2.5 seconds before impact but still hit the driver’s side of the car going almost 60 miles an hour.
Barbara Williams, 78, and Bennie Joe Williams, 79, were killed in the crash at the intersection of U.S. 40 and Smith Road in Plainfield around 5:45 p.m. Aug. 30. According to the couple’s obituary, the Williamses leave behind four children, 17 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
The incident started on a report of a person down at a Long John Silver’s restaurant. Police said the suspect, later identified as 38-year-old Bryan Goodmon, of Fillmore, Indiana, was possibly impaired as he was sitting in a car at the restaurant.
When a Plainfield officer approached Goodmon, he drove away and nearly hit the officer with his car. The officer pursued the vehicle onto U.S. 40, resulting in a brief chase that ended in the crash with the uninvolved vehicle.
According to the police report, “emergency vehicles will outrun their sirens at approximately 55 mph, so it is likely that (the Williamses) did not hear (the officer’s) sirens.”
The report also says that as the Plainfield officer approached the intersection, the traffic light was red for him and the Williamses had a green arrow for their turn. Some intersections are equipped to change when they detect police sirens. That intersection did not have that equipment.
“Emergency vehicles must still drive with due regard even with lights and sirens activated,” the report says. “(The officer) was traveling at a high rate of speed and did not proceed with due regard through the intersection.”
The Avon officer investigating says that the Williamses likely didn’t see the Plainfield cruiser until they were already in the intersection.
On Sept. 4, Goodmon was charged with resisting law enforcement causing death. He was taken into custody 17 days after the crash.
He is being held in the Hendricks County Jail. His trial is scheduled for Nov. 26.
