San Francisco 49ers Christian McCaffrey joins men's luxury performance sportswear brand Peter Millar as its first NFL ambassador.

Peter Millar

San Francisco 49ers’ running back Christian McCaffrey has spent much of his life thinking about performance. It isn’t simply part of his job. It is his job. But for McCaffrey, performance isn’t confined to what happens on the football field. It shapes how he trains, how he handles setbacks and, increasingly, how he approaches life away from the game.

That makes his newest partnership with Peter Millar a particularly natural fit. The Raleigh, North Carolina-based luxury sportswear and lifestyle brand recently tapped McCaffrey as its newest global ambassador — and, significantly, its first from the NFL — marking a high-profile move beyond the professional golf world where Peter Millar has long had a strong presence.

The partnership comes as Peter Millar celebrates its 25th anniversary and expands its lifestyle reach with Pursuit, a new Fall 2026 men’s collection designed to move between work, travel and everyday life. McCaffrey will be the face of the collection’s launch campaign. Combining ease of movement and comfort with a more refined aesthetic, Pursuit encompasses lightweight outerwear, trousers, knits and relaxed tailoring in a muted palette and matte finishes intended to offer an elevated alternative to traditional performance apparel.

Christian McCaffrey says he's been wearing Peter Millar long before the brand approached him to become an ambassador.

Peter Millar

For McCaffrey, who says he was already wearing Peter Millar before the partnership came together, the collaboration felt organic.

“As an athlete, as you go through your career, you get a lot of brand deals and obviously they’re great, but it’s always easy when a brand aligns with what you would do naturally,” says McCaffrey. “I think somebody’s style is a good representation of who they are as a person without having to say anything. Peter Millar fits me perfectly. It’s understated, but elevated, but it’s not loud and in your face for everyone to see. And that’s exactly how I like to dress.”

McCaffrey feels the opposite when on the football field. “I always say, ‘Play loud.’ You don’t have to talk, you don’t have to say a lot but you have to play loud to get results.”

Recently McCaffrey spoke about how he trains to get through the 17 weeks of football, but he acknowledges there is no single element that determines success.

“I think what I’ve learned over the years is that training for football is a system. It’s like building a Formula One car. The tires matter, the aerodynamics matter, the weight of it matters. Every little angle matters. The crew that you have that’s working on the car matters, the engineers,” he explains. “You’re training and you’re working out and all these other things, but there’s so many intricate details that go into it that it would be impossible to narrow it into just one.”

Christian McCaffrey will be the ambassador for Peter Millar's newest line: Pursuits.

Peter MIllar

But McCaffrey says the lessons he has learned from football extend well beyond physical conditioning. Having played the game since he was seven, he says it has taught him about teamwork, resilience and adaptability.

“I love playing chess. I look at football kind of like a chess match. It’s the game of life. It teaches you so much about yourself. It teaches you how to work with a team, how to succeed, how to fail, how to move on,” he says. “One of the beauties of playing football is that you don’t really have time to continue to celebrate or continue to harp on a negative thing that’s happened. You have to just keep going.”

McCaffrey also credits football with getting him closer to his faith, teaching him trust himself and stay present. “Football is such a great sport, so humbling all the time and so rewarding,” he says. “You can have a 60-yard touchdown in the first quarter and then the next play you can get flipped by four guys and land on your head. It’s this constant yin yang of staying present and staying alive. The highs and the lows can come just seconds apart. All of the lessons I’ve learned in football have truly shaped me who I am.”

They are lessons McCaffrey says he carries from football into daily life. “There are a lot of benefits to having that stay-in-the-moment mindset in life too. I had somebody once tell me nostalgia is a disease. Whatever you remember was never that good and it was never that bad. And that hit me because that’s football.”

“They always say, ‘Next play, next play, next play.’ You’re never really harping on the past. You’re always focused on being alive, being in the moment. And I think as chaotic as it is, it’s where I feel most present.”

Staying present may come naturally in the middle of a game, but slowing down in everyday life seems to take more practice for McCaffrey. But he says marriage and fatherhood have begun changing that. McCaffrey and his wife, Olivia Culpo, have a young daughter, and another child is on the way.

“It’s definitely not harder for me to speed up,” McCaffrey jokes. “I’m always kind of onto the next thing, but there’s nothing that naturally allows you to be present like watching your daughter grow and play and smile,” he says. “Whatever happened in practice, whatever happened at work, you come home and your switch changes now to being a dad, to being with her,” he says. “You have to turn that switch off. And when you have something you love so much right there, it’s very natural for that switch to turn off.”

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - FEBRUARY 11: Christian McCaffrey #23 of the San Francisco 49ers runs the ball for a touchdown in the second quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs during Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium on February 11, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

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At just 30, McCaffrey is also already thinking about a life that extends beyond football. He recently co-founded performance and lifestyle company While on Earth, an opportunity that allowed him to build something beyond football but still in a world he knows well.

“I think the cool thing about it was the opportunity to transcend football, because football ends for all of us some day,” he says. “I like being a part of a team and being part of something bigger than myself.”

That doesn’t mean McCaffrey has mapped out exactly what comes next. In fact, he has never particularly liked limiting himself to one pursuit. Growing up, he played basketball and baseball and ran track. Today his interests range from chess to movies, music and golf.

“I hated specializing in one thing. I enjoy all things,” he says.

As for whether he sees the Christian McCaffrey name eventually becoming a brand of its own, he isn’t sure yet. For now, he is remaining focused on each task at hand.

“I think when you live in an overwhelmed, heightened nervous system state for so long, it forces you to surrender in a really awesome way where instead of worrying about anything, you’re just completely present and able to take each thing as it comes.”

Being Peter Millar’s first NFL ambassador is one of those things. One, McCaffrey jokes, that may mean spending a little more time on the golf course. “Every time I golf, it’s all I wear. So, the partnership puts a lot of pressure on me to start to play more and lower my handicap,” he says. “I want to be as good as I can be in everything I pursue.”

This article was originally published on Forbes.com