Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images
Meet the man who’s created memorable looks for Rob Gronkowski, Dak Prescott, Justin Simmons, Joe Burrow, and so many more.
Tom Marchitelli has the coolest job in the entire world.
We’d been texting back and forth for a couple of weeks trying to find a time to chat for this very feature, and he had to find a way to squeeze me in while juggling last-minute requests from NFL players hoping to get their game day attire squared away before the regular season began. Just in the week leading up to our conversation, Marchitelli landed an impromptu meeting with Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, and days later he flew to Dallas to work with repeat clients, Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott.
Marchitelli is in high demand for good reason. First and foremost, his passion for what he does comes through loud and clear when he’s talking about his work, and that passion yields perfect fits and inimitable style.
Fashion wasn’t Plan A for Marchitelli, who has a finance degree from Boston College and initially worked in New York City at a hedge fund for eight years after graduation. But that wasn’t his passion.
“I’ve always been a clotheshorse. I’ve always been into style and fashion,” Marchitelli said. “And at that time, I had a custom clothier making suits for me, and I kind of drove him crazy in terms of — I wanted to do everything myself. I was so into picking the fabrics; I thought it was the most exciting thing, anytime I went to see him and got to look through the fabric books. And also, I’m the most particular person when it comes to fit, and he couldn’t get the fit as precise and tailored as I wanted it. So I took it upon myself to find a local tailor in New York.”
That tailor worked with Marchitelli and taught him how garments needed to be tailored to achieve the silhouette he was after, not long afterward, Marchitelli launched his Instagram page, the Gentleman’s Playbook.
“It was actually my wife’s idea,” Marchitelli said.
“She said, ‘Hey, you always wear these nice suits,’ whether it was to weddings, or when she and I went out to dinners, I would always wear a custom-made suit, and she would take pictures of me. And this was when Instagram really popped off like nine years ago, I would say. And so I put all these pictures of me on Instagram and I would hashtag menswear, men’s style, men’s suits, all that stuff. And I just blew up on Instagram, I got all these followers. I’m talking like 100,000 over the first couple of years.”
Marchitelli’s personal style was enough to convince athletes to reach out to him via DM asking for custom suits. And starting down that road was an adventure.
“I had two weeks to prepare for my first-ever client. And in that time period, I made a connection with a manufacturer out in LA who to this day makes all my suits, and they sent someone out to me to teach me how to measure — that’s the only thing I’ve ever been taught; everything else is self-taught, and when it comes to the design, the fabric selection, and a lot of trial and error along the way of how to get these guys fitted properly, I get it done,” he said.
Player personalities play a huge role in their personal style
Not only are players’ personalities a factor in the designs Marchitelli comes up with for them — they’re the most important factor.
“I always say that dressing is an extension of your personality. So for the guys who are extremely confident, a little bit daring, bold — those are the fabrics I’m going to show to them,” Marchitelli explained. “And for the other guys who maybe don’t want to be as much in the spotlight — and I have very few of those guys. Most of the guys who come to me want to stand out and showcase their amazing builds and the clothes that I custom tailor for them. But you know, there are a few guys who definitely want to stay more in the solids range.”
Jimmy Garoppolo is one of those guys.
“Every time I see him, he’ll say, ‘I know I’m disappointing you if I’m only asking to see the solids,’ and I’m like, ‘Hey, that’s perfectly fine.’ A, I’m happy you’re buying a bunch of suits. And B, if everybody looked the same, how exciting would that be?”
Even with the more classic designs and conservative fabrics, the flawless fit, the elegance and the quality are immediately evident. It’s no surprise that Marchitelli counts Tom Ford among his inspirations.
“Before I made my own suits, he was the best designer — he still is,” Marchitelli said. “He’s the all-time greatest menswear designer in terms of suits, the Italian cuts that that he has created. And in fact, some of my, some of my clients now used to always wear Tom Ford, like Shannon Sharpe — he was exclusively in Tom Ford and other bespoke suits on TV. And I remember thinking, ‘Wow, he looks amazing in those suits.’ And now Shannon Sharpe’s buying 20 things a year from me. That’s pretty cool.”
His turnaround times and customer service are mind-blowing
If you’ve ever had something tailored, you know it takes time. I had a bridesmaid’s dress tailored about a year ago, and it was a three-week turnaround. Making an entire custom suit from scratch out of top-quality Italian silk is a much more complex process than hemming a dress and taking in the waist a bit, but Marchitelli doesn’t let any of that slow him down.
“I have the capacity to do 24 to 48-hour turnarounds when necessary. I obviously charge more for that, because we have to table several other guys in the line, so to speak, to get these done. But I do that all the time,” Marchitelli said. “Because say a guy gets invited to a red carpet event or there’s a team event and they have minimal notice, which is pretty often in the world that these guys live in. And I’m sure they have some suits in the closet, but they want a new fresh look.
“So they say ‘Tom, what can we cook up in one to two days?’ And I’ll have options, you know, whatever fabrics I have in stock that I don’t have to order from Italy. I just show them those options, and we get it done.”
Thankfully, they’re not all quick turnarounds.
“In terms of the standard process — I have 180 NFL clients right now; the majority of those guys, I’ll see in June, July and August,” Marchitelli said. “I prefer to see the guys in June because then there’s no rush because fabrics usually take a week to come from Italy, and there’s a week to two to make them sharp.”
I found out about Marchitelli’s work from his client, friend, and fellow Boston College Eagle, Denver Broncos safety Justin Simmons.
“With Justin, he and I are so excited every time about the day that we meet to pick suits for the season,” Marchitelli said. “We always meet during OTAs in June. It’s one of my favorite days of the year, because there’s no pressure and the timing can be relaxed. I come up with a game plan. We look at his schedule together and see which dates for which suits to put together. And then there’s July, still plenty of time.
“But August, a lot of these guys, suits maybe aren’t at the forefront of their priorities because they have camp and their training regimens and all that, and they know that even if they hit me in August, I’m still gonna get it done in time. Sure, I obviously prefer to get it done July and August. Put it this way: This week, I don’t know if my tailor is going to sleep, because I have several dozens of suits that need to go out in the next 72 hours and we lose a day with Labor Day.”
Speaking of Simmons, this suit was the genesis of my Gentleman’s Playbook fandom. It’s a dark blue silk trending toward teal, with reddish-orange flowers that absolutely pop.
“He won the NFL Honors red carpet with that one,” Marchitelli said.
Marchitelli designed himself a jacket in that fabric for Red Sox first baseman Eric Hosmer’s rehearsal dinner, but wore solid dark teal pants instead of the full suit.
“The whole night long, people would not stop coming over asking me all about it. ‘Who made it?’ My favorite question, obviously,” Marchitelli said.
“And when I got home, I’m like, ‘Okay, I think I need to make this in a full suit for somebody. And it’s going to be Justin, because Justin can pull the pants off,” Marchitelli said. “It’s not for me. I couldn’t do the whole thing.”
But Simmons can, and he did. Taryn Simmons, Justin’s wife, found this elegant gown to match in a red-orange — it looks gorgeous on her, and complements the floral pattern on her husband’s suit flawlessly.
Simmons worked with Marchitelli leading up to the season to get his game day outfits ready to go. His Week 1 look was an abstract black floral pattern on teal silk, and it’s gorgeous.
Marchitelli’s suits have broken the internet
Everyone remembers the Joe Burrow Super Bowl suit. That was Gentleman’s Playbook.
“I have the chills just thinking about it, because I was such a special moment for me, my brand, and my family,” Marchitelli said.
He actually made two different suits for Burrow for the Super Bowl. His family was on the edges of their seats waiting to see what Burrow would choose, though Marchitelli admitted to being a bit worried that Burrow would be too mentally dialed in on the game and would walk in wearing a Bengals sweatsuit instead.
But Burrow went with the suit, and the Marchitellis were over the moon.
“I mean, my son was jumping up and down. My wife was, too. It was just really, really special,” he said.
He’d never worked with Burrow before the Bengals won the AFC Championship following the 2021 season, but in Marchitelli’s words, “I was determined to dress this man.” He had just two weeks to make it happen.
Usually, if there’s a player he wants to dress, he’s already got some clients on the team who can put in a good word. But that doesn’t always work with a high-profile player, like a starting quarterback who’s focused on preparing to take his team to its first Super Bowl in 33 years.
But then he realized that Burrow and Dak Prescott share an agent, and Dak has been working with Marchitelli for six years now, and his team knows Marchitelli and his work well and think highly of him.
He reached out to Prescott and Burrow’s agent’s assistant, and the next day he got the call saying, “Hey, Joe is ready for you to come to Cincinnati tomorrow,” and he was on the next flight.
What was it like working with Burrow?
“He was all business, that man. Oh my goodness, I loved it,” Marchitelli said.
He showed up in Cincinnati with 10 or 12 fabrics that he had on hand that nobody had seen yet, laid them all on the table in front of Burrow, and told him to go nuts.
“He looked at them for maybe five minutes, and he picked two. and he said ‘I love both of these, and I can’t decide which one,’” Marchitelli said. “Now the salesman in me should have right away said ‘Well, I’ll just make both,’ but I just said, ‘Okay, whatever you want me to do, I’ll do,’ and he said ‘I want to do both, and I’ll decide the week of the game.’”
Marchitelli had to have the fabric overnighted from Italy, and he told Burrow he’d be back in four days for the fitting. He got the first suit made in two days, flew back to Cincinnati in four days, and got the fitting done. Marchitelli, regardless of whether someone orders two suits or 22 suits, makes one first so he can get the fit perfected before making any others. But the turnaround time wasn’t the only challenge here.
“Also, he wasn’t sure which kind of shoes he was gonna wear with it,” Marchitelli said. “So he said once it is going to be with a high-top sneaker, the other with a low top. So I had to make two different pant lines, which gets confusing.”
Burrow decided to go with the low-top Air Jordan with the black and silver striped suit. The other suit would pair with high-top Jordans, so those got raised an inch and a half so the sneakers wouldn’t disrupt the fit. Of course, the hat and sunglasses were perfect accessories.
“And then he’s like, ‘You know what? I think I’m going to do a hat,’” Marchitelli said. “And I said, ‘I think that is the best idea. I love the hat. I know you’re gonna have your sunglasses on, too — your sheisty shades.’”
A black diamond watch and high-end Jordans rounded out the accessories, and the look was not just complete, but instantly iconic.
Thor and “Thor” on the red carpet
Marchitelli doesn’t just work with NFL players. The Phillies’ Noah Syndergaard — also known by his nickname, Thor — is a longtime client, and Marchitelli dressed him for the ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ premiere.
“I’ve worked with [Syndergaard] since he was a rookie. I remember the first time he said, ‘Hey, I can only afford one suit,” Marchitelli said. Obviously, that changed over time.
Syndergaard was nicknamed Thor during his time with the Mets, and he was invited to the red carpet premiere through his agency. He wanted a Thor-inspired suit.
“So he sent me a picture of Hemsworth in the current movie, and it was the reddish cape. And then everything else is like gunmetal,” Marchitelli said. “So he said, ‘What should we do?’ And then I’m thinking, well, your jacket has to be like a crimson burgundy, for sure. And then your body armor is going to be reflected in the pants.”
Marchitelli said he’d find a cool gunmetal print for the pants, and then Syndergaard came up with the concept for the jacket lining.
“And he goes, ‘How about, like, comic book strips?’ Dude, geez, genius on his part. As much as I’d like to take all the credit, I cannot — these guys have a vision as well.”
Syndergaard sent him some Thor comic book covers, and Marchitelli picked eight or nine of them and had the lining made with the images. The end result was that Noah Syndergaard looked sharper on the red carpet than Chris Hemsworth did — no offense to Hemsworth, who’s still one of the hottest guys in Hollywood, even though his suit is a little boring.
The perfect look for a “stylin’, profilin’, limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin’ and dealin’ son of a gun”
Talk about someone’s personality inspiring their style. If this getup doesn’t make you want to scream “WOOOOOOO” like the dude who’s wearing it, you need to check your pulse.
Marchitelli has worked with Flair several times, but this suit is particularly special. The beautiful bride next to Flair is his daughter — and WWE wrestler — Charlotte Flair.
That’s all silk on Ric Flair, with a delicate pink paisley print. “I sent him three or four options,” Marchitelli said. “He’s like, ‘Oh, I want that one.’”
Ric Flair might be one of the only 73-year-olds in the world who can pull this look off so effortlessly, and he’s rocking it.
Marchitelli dressed Byron Buxton and his whole family
When the Twins’ Byron Buxton needed to get his family ready for the 2022 All-Star Red Carpet, he turned to Marchitelli and Gentleman’s Playbook.
“That’s one of my all-time favorite things I’ve done, especially because I have two boys,” Marchitelli said.
Marchitelli said that Buxton had followed him on Instagram, but before reaching out to inquire about an All-Star suit, he’d never been a client. And instead of just making Buxton a suit for the All-Star red carpet, he ended up dressing the whole family.
“So he said, ‘Oh, by the way, my wife might want something,’” Marchitelli said. “And he and the wife agreed, ‘Hey, let’s pick his fabric first, and then you can get creative with everybody else.’”
Lindsey Buxton didn’t want to outshine her husband.
“She said, ‘I kind of want to be secondary; I want him to pop in this color,’” Marchitelli said.
Mrs. Buxton prefers to wear white, and Marchitelli has a gorgeous white silk he loves to work with.
“So I took his actual fabric, and I made it as the cuffs of her jacket and the pockets on her blazer as well, and then a stripe down the side or pants, which I don’t know if you can even see, but all the down her pants in the same turquoise silk,” Marchitelli said.
Marchitelli wore one of his custom bomber jackets to the meeting, not knowing that it would end up being inspiration for the Buxton boys’ All-Star style.
“And then [Buxton] said, ‘Hey, boys, do you guys want a jacket too?’ And his oldest was eight, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I want a jacket,’” Marchitelli said. “And he’s like, ‘Do you like the jacket he’s wearing?’”
The answer was yes, so both boys got fitted for their new turquoise silk bomber jackets so the whole family would be stylin’ on the red carpet.
“So I measured up the two boys, which is always a challenge because boys never want to sit still,” Marchitelli said. “But we made it happen. And that was another — I think — one-week turn around. I had it all done. And the only change I need to make — his wife wanted the pants a little tighter. So she sent them back to me and I fixed those in a day.”
Marchitelli’s favorite suit
Gentleman’s Playbooks designs and fabrics are so gorgeous that it’s hard to believe Marchitelli could even pick a favorite, but he does have one. It’s the dusty rose silk suit he designed for Dak Prescott for the 2020 NFL Honors that took place a month before COVID hit, down in Miami before Super Bowl LIV.
“I was there — I dressed 13 people, the most I’ve ever done for a red carpet,” Marchitelli said.
Dak can wear the hell out of a suit, and the suit ended up being the absolute perfect shade, fit, and fabric. Dak trusted Marchitelli’s judgment on the color, and Marchitelli was able to perfectly capture the Miami vibe.
“She did a photo shoot of him on the balcony of their hotel, and it’s better than any picture anyone would have taken on the carpet,” Marchitelli said.
There’s a reason Marchitelli’s client roster continues to add big names, and that the same professional athletes and celebrities want to work with him over and over again. He’s got a real gift for capturing people’s personalities in the designs he creates. Factor in his perfectionism about fit, his obsession with quality, and his dedication to delivering what his clients need, even on a very tight timetable, and I won’t be surprised if Gentleman’s Playbook becomes the go-to designer for red carpet looks across sports and entertainment.
But what matters most to Marchitelli is that his clients are happy with his work.
“They’re proud to wear my brand,” he said. “And I’m proud that they’re proud to wear it.”
