Claire Kittle Is Creating a Special Space for Football Fans With Her Latest Projects

We caught up with Kittle ahead of her first SI Swimsuit shoot, where she told us more about the accomplishments she’s ‘most proud of’ recently.

Claire Kittle is saying “yes” to more in 2026, and that starts with her first SI Swimsuit feature.

The content creator, brand founder and wife of San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle joined the franchise on the beaches of the South Seas resort on Captiva Island, Fla., where she was photographed by Katherine Goguen as part of the SI Swimsuit February 2026 digital issue, alongside fellow models Normani, Brittany Mahomes, Christen Goff, Ronika Love and Haley Cavinder.

“I want to say yes to more because I’m really good at saying no,” she says about her decision to join SI Swimsuit in Florida. “This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and being an athlete my entire life, I love something to work towards. A goal. And so it’s just really cool that [SI Swimsuit] even thought of me in the first place.”

Claire Kittle was photographed by Katherine Goguen on Captiva Island, Fla. Swimsuit by FAE. / Katherine Goguen/Sports Illustrated

Before she took to the sands to model designer swimwear in the Sunshine State, SI Swimsuit caught up with Kittle for a chat, where the topic turned to her many accomplishments in 2025.

The year saw several exciting new projects for the content creator, as she and her husband continued to cohost their podcast Kittle Things. She and fellow 49ers spouse Kristin Juszczyk also teamed up to start the Wife’d Up, Mic’d Up series on YouTube, documenting their live reactions to everything happening during game day from their spot on the sidelines.

“She is my sister in this football world. We have been on the Niners together the longest. We just finished nine years, so going into 10, which is crazy,” Kittle says. “That’s really rare in the football world, like, there’s a lot of moving around, a lot of people get traded or cut or switched to teams. So, we’re very fortunate to have been together in this entire journey, and we just love having fun together.”

Still, Kittle notes there’s one specific creation that comes to mind when she thinks of the things she’s “most proud of” from the last year. “What I’m most proud of is that I started a brand called ‘HOSS,’ which stands for ‘The House of Sport and Sisterhood,’” she says. “And with that, I traveled around to a couple of different football games, hosted tailgates and brought women together to meet and hang out, share stories, contact info, make friends and then go to the game together.”

The HOSS Tailgate Tour kicked off with three stops during the 2025 season: Los Angeles, Phoenix and, of course, San Francisco. Like many of her recent projects, the idea behind the tour came from Kittle’s own life experiences, with the founder noting that she was inspired by her own close-knit group of college friends.

Claire Kittle was photographed by Katherine Goguen on Captiva Island, Fla. Swimsuit by Bamba Swim. / Katherine Goguen/Sports Illustrated

“There were five of us, and that’s our nickname, ‘the Hosses.’ They support me in everything I do, and we just have the most fun together, and those are my sisters in this world, and I just feel like it’s important that everybody has that and has that opportunity,” she says. “So I wanted to cultivate those kinds of friendships and bring them to sports and around a football game day.”

While “HOSS” may be an acronym, it stands for far more than just four words. It’s a celebration of friendship and sisterhood, but also of life, reminding others that—no matter what the future has in store—your friends will be there beside you through it all.

“One of my best friends in that group has advanced cancer, and she found out when she was pregnant with her daughter. Her daughter’s healthy and perfectly fine, but she has been battling for two years now,” Kittle adds. “And so, we just want to celebrate life, and it’s really important to me to share her story and say her name—her name is Carrie—and just, you know, enlighten other people and make a positive world, because that’s what she does every single day.”

Overall, Kittle’s passion lies in carving out safe, fun spaces in the world of football while curating an equally passionate community. Looking ahead, she hopes to continue to do just that. When we ask about what projects she’s most excited for in 2026, one word comes to mind: “growth.”

“We definitely want to grow Wife’d Up, Mic’d Up. What does the offseason look like for us, right?” she says. “We just filmed for the entire football season, but, like, there are things that Kristin and I do in the offseason that are also very interesting, you know, solo, separately and together. We’re always hanging out. Always. So what does that look like? And then [growing] Kittle Things, too. That has been such a fun project for me to do with George, and it’s something that’s super outside my comfort zone. Like, I would never do a podcast, I don’t think, unless it was with George.”

Click here to view Claire Kittle’s full SI Swimsuit gallery.