DK Metcalf Reveals Wearing Jeans with Over 200 Stuffed Animals (Exclusive)

DK Metcalf’s extremely cool ‘fit’ form will be hard to beat!

The Seattle Seahawks wide receiver is no stranger to fashion-forward tunnel walks on game day, but the plush animal-stitched pants he wore before his team’s Week 7 matchup against the Atlanta Falcons might be his most memorable yet.

While speaking with PEOPLE about her involvement in the NFL’s My Cause My Cleat initiative — where she personally designed shoes for two foundations close to her heart — Metcalf detailed the denim’s unconventional design while also sharing her laid-back approach to style.

“A year or two ago, I was scrolling through Instagram and they just popped up,” Metcalf, 26, tells PEOPLE exclusively of the pants with more than nearly 200 multicolored stuffed animals stitched onto them. Each leg is covered with a variety of toys, including yellow ducks, green frogs and classic teddy bears.

What was Metcalf’s first thought upon finding the special suit? “These are amazing,” she says of embellished denim. Trousers Le Rêve NazamIt is an independent brand based in Virginia and was founded by designer and creative director Chad Nazam.

Although it’s unclear how much Metcalf spent on the custom jeans, a similar pair is on the brand’s list. website For $650. At least the uniqueness of the pants influenced his decision to buy them for himself.

“No one else bought them, so I’ll buy them,” the Seahawk star recalls of his thought process before purchasing. “Just set it aside and let it do the rest on its own.”

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Metcalf paired the plush patterned pants with a white Balenciaga graphic tee and pink-and-white Nikes. She accessorized with a few chain necklaces and a studded watch, and paired them with Beats headphones as she headed to the locker room before the match.

For a pair of pants hand-sewn with more than 200 stuffed animals, they certainly have weight, so much so that the athlete thought they weighed roughly “15 to 20 lbs.” According to the description of the denim on the site, its total weight is 5 lbs.

The most ironic part of this particularly bold look is that Metcalf tells PEOPLE that she doesn’t necessarily consider herself fashion-forward. “Not with some people out there,” he admits, adding that he “has a lot of work to do.”

The athlete went on to list several of his Seahawk teammates, including 2023 Rookie of the Year CJ Stroud, wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and quarterback Geno Smith, who all have “great style.” “There are a lot of people with great style, and I try to keep up with them,” he emphasizes.

Metcalf says he now works with a stylist for his game-day outfits. “His name is Danny Hill,” he explains, noting that she lives in Dallas but they both grew up together in Mississippi. “He styles me and another NFL player,” he says.

As for whether she has a particular motto that she follows when deciding on outfits for herself? “No, I don’t have a motto that I live by,” she says, explaining that her look often depends on “how you’re feeling that day.”

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In fact, Metcalf says her “mood” often determines her outfits. “So if I’m wearing a running outfit, that means if I’m wearing jeans or something like that, that means I don’t have enough energy to create a fit,” he explains. “So my style definitely reflects how I feel.”

In Metcalf’s latest venture, he is the creator at the helm! The athlete returned for another year of participating in the NFL’s My Cause My Cleat initiative, which has combined sports and philanthropy since 2016 by inviting fans to connect with players’ personal causes through custom-designed cleats.

This year, Metcalf’s featured causes are Prison Fellowship and The Voice. “It’s important to me,” he says of his decision to support these two nonprofits in this way.

“I don’t like people to feel like they’re unheard or forgotten, so Prison Brotherhood spoke to me in a sense that I don’t want inmates to feel forgotten or left out,” the NFL star explains.

“And I recently learned ASL with Sound, and they are a huge supporter of the deaf community in Seattle,” he continues. “So I wanted to choose an organization that was based here in Seattle and had a lot of different arms that would be able to reach a lot of different communities.”

For the first time in the startup’s history, athletes used AWS’s generative AI application to customize their cleats. “We started by writing some keywords that meant a lot to the organization,” he says, eventually adding the word “hope” to the back of the shoe.

“The overall feel of the shoe is very loud and dramatic, so people look at the shoe and wonder what the cleat is on and show them closer,” Metcalf says of the aesthetics of the shoes. “These shoes are unique in their own right.”