It was 2023 and the summer of Zhaveri Kendall Junk In between the collaboration was creating a jewelery collection weavingA startup brand and pro golfer Michelle Wie West.
“Michelle had a little bracelet that she wore that her daughter made,” Junk, the brand’s head designer, says, recalling that the athlete suggested they make a luxury version.
Junk also attended Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Pittsburgh with his younger sister.
“I had all my friendship bracelets that we traded on the show,” she told Business Insider. “So I was like, ‘Okay, Michelle, don’t pitch any other ideas. This is what we’re going with.’
Their collaboration led to the design of a diamond-encrusted, friendship-style tennis bracelet, which sells for over $5,680. Wow’s website.
But Junck, West, and Wove CEO Simon Kendall Let alone with her boyfriend, NFL star Travis Kelce, at a Kansas City Chiefs game.
“We were floored,” Kendall said of the moment her team saw Swift sporting custom versions emblazoned with the letters “TNT” for Taylor and Travis.
Now a staple at NFL games, Swift has prioritized supporting local businesses with her fashion choices.
In October 2023, for example, Swift dropped hundreds of vintage sweatshirts. Kansas City BoutiqueThe store owner initially thinks he is experiencing a case of fraud.
In the case of Wow, things happened a little differently.
“Michelle and Travis are friends, so she told him about the bracelet she was making and we were able to give Taylor a gift,” Kendall told BI.
Kendall said Kells chose “TNT” for the letter beads and later requested a matching one for himself.
“We wanted to make sure it looked small for her, so we took it upon ourselves to increase the carat weight, make the beads a little bigger and make them proportional to her,” she said, adding that Kelce’s bracelet was one too. A gift from the brand to the athlete.
Although Kendall and her team weren’t sure if Swift or Kelce would ever wear the bracelet, they spent weeks holding on to hope.
“Our operations manager always sends us pictures of Taylor in the box on Sunday nights, and she’s wearing jackets and long sweaters,” Kendall said. “Our team is like ‘Oh my God, please warm him out so we can see his wrists.'”
They got their wish in January when a Weave employee spotted a smiley-face charm on Swift’s bracelet — part of West’s collaborative jewelry line.
“The team was going crazy,” Kendall said. “We basically haven’t slept since.”
In less than 24 hours after the game, WoW’s website traffic increased by 2,260% and sales increased by 477%, Kendall said. It has also received an influx of requests for custom orders.
The moment was pivotal for Wow, which was founded in 2022 by two Army veterans. The brand originally focused on engagement rings but now offers a wide range of jewelry.
“We’re a small business based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, so to see Taylor, who’s also from Pennsylvania, wearing the bracelet, it’s a very happy moment,” Kendall said.
How Swift continues to wear the piece is just as fascinating to the brand.
She wore a sparkling bracelet as part A $70,000 outfit in the first Chiefs game of the 2024-2025 season and again this month during a New York City date with the Cals.
She also used a sentimental bracelet to accessorize it US Open Weekend outfit.
So, for Kendall and Junk, the connection between Wow and Swift has truly come full circle.
“Photos on our vision board in early meetings showed bracelets I made for the concert and other Swifties doing business with me during the show,” Junk said. “They were all little pieces of plastic with an invisible wire between them. We just took the design and turned it into a diamond.
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