Carhartt partnered with the NFL by targeting the construction workers building Buffalo's Highmark Stadium, not the players who will use it, according to Digiday. The brand equipped tradespeople on-site during the stadium's construction phase, placing product where the end customer was already working.
The workwear company provided gear to laborers, electricians, and other trades building the facility. Instead of paying for athlete endorsements or advertising spots during games, Carhartt positioned itself as the brand worn by the people constructing the infrastructure. The sponsorship ran through the construction timeline, embedding the brand in the project narrative from ground-breaking forward.
This works because Carhartt's customer base overlaps exactly with the workforce on a major construction site. The brand sells to tradespeople. A stadium build employs hundreds of those same buyers over months of visible, high-stakes work. By sponsoring the workers rather than the athletes, Carhartt put product on its actual user in a context where durability and function are tested daily. The workers become proof-of-concept, and the construction site becomes a multi-month demonstration.
The play also generates content and press without traditional ad spend. A brand equipping workers on a marquee NFL project has a news angle. Local media covers stadium construction. Trades publications cover major builds. Carhartt shows up in that coverage as the sponsor of the workforce, not as a purchased ad slot. The brand gets associative credibility with the NFL and the project without buying a commercial or signing a quarterback.
A small physical-product brand can run the same play on a local scale. Identify a high-visibility construction or infrastructure project in your region: a new school, a civic building, a downtown redevelopment. Approach the general contractor or project manager and offer to supply your product to the crew at cost or at a steep discount in exchange for branding rights and permission to document the project. If you make gloves, boots, coolers, safety gear, tools, or any product a crew uses daily, you have a fit.
Negotiate simple terms: your product on-site, your logo on project signage or crew shirts, and access to take photos during the build. Commit to a specific quantity based on crew size. A 50-person crew over a four-month build might require 200 units of a consumable item or 50 units of a durable good. At wholesale cost, that's manageable for a small brand. Pair the sponsorship with a press release to local media and a content series on your social channels documenting the build. Tag the project, the contractor, and the municipality. The project's visibility becomes your visibility.
The mechanism scales: your product is used by your customer in a context that proves the product works. The project provides a narrative frame and a timeline. The documentation creates content that substitutes for paid advertising. You align with something larger than your brand without paying for traditional sponsorship.
The next move is identifying which projects in your market have visibility, a timeline that matches your production capacity, and a contractor or developer willing to engage. Start with projects already announced, where procurement is still open and press attention is guaranteed.
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