Tua Tagovailoa Infuses Culture Into His Latest Collab

Tua Tagovailoa isn’t just a quarterback—he’s a storyteller, weaving his heritage into creative collaborations and his resilience into every drive on the field. This past August, we sat down with Tua to discuss two of his most compelling partnerships: his line with Perry Ellis, which has brought the island-inspired style he grew up wearing to a global audience, and his growing relationship with Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel.

Earlier this year, Tua took a leap into the fashion world, blending his Samoan heritage with modern design to create a line that’s as personal as it is stylish in partnership with Perry Ellis. “It’s all about legacy,” Tua says, reflecting on what drew him to the project. “I didn’t grow up big into fashion, but this gave me a chance to find my own style and share my culture in a way that feels real.”

For Tua, it’s not just about looking good; it’s about telling a story. Drawing inspiration from traditional Samoan weaving patterns and motifs from his childhood in Hawaii, the collection is deeply rooted in his identity. “The designs have a lot of cultural elements, but it’s subtle,” he explains. “You might not realize it’s cultural until you hear the story behind it, and then you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s dope.’” With input from the Perry Ellis design team and blink-and-you-miss-it nods to his tattoos, Tua’s line bridges the gap between modern and traditional.

Beyond the threads, Tua also opened up about his connection with Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, whose leadership style has impacted the fourth-year quarterback’s evolution. “Mike’s all about emotional intelligence and empowering people,” Tua says, highlighting how McDaniel’s approach has shaped not just his own growth, but the entire team’s dynamic.

While our conversation was about looking forward (even as far as the 2028 Olympics), the trajectory of the season took an unexpected turn when Tua suffered a concussion in Week 2 against the Bills, his third since 2022, sidelining the Dolphins’ starting quarterback until Week 8.

Now, as the Dolphins push for a playoff run, our conversation feels even more resonant. Tua’s own journey—rooted in culture and resilience—serves as a testament to the lasting impact he’s making in Miami and beyond.

Our conversation, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, is below.

Tell us more about the Perry Ellis collection and how it came about. Just where did it start? Did you grow up wearing Perry Ellis?

I didn’t grow up with clothing or fashion being a big thing, but anytime you can do something where it’s yours, I mean, it just all goes back to legacy for me in my mind. And I thought it was cool when I was approached with the opportunity.

I would say fashion has sort of been pretty interesting to me because I’m not one to wear jewelry or, I dunno, nice clothes and whatnot. You basically know what I wear every time I go out: I wear black pants and my white shirt. Unless you got something that’s yours, man, like, this is my line. Why not wear it? Go out, you get to see if people are messing with it or they’re not messing with it. You get one of those, ‘Dang, I like that shirt. What is that?’ Then it kind of gives you something to be proud about.

It was cool. I was just able to find my own personal style that I gravitated towards and it was cool because I went back and forth with the Perry Ellis design team and I would just send them pictures of what my vision was, some of my clothes, and they would send what they had back and it was cool because it was like, I like this, I like that, but this kind of doesn’t mesh with me. And they were willing, however long it took, they were just like, man, we just want to make sure that this is what your vision for this line is.

That was super, super cool because it had a lot to do with my culture, but it was also a mash of style and innovation. We all want to find ways to make positive impacts within our communities, and so what better way to do that than bringing culture and clothing together?

Absolutely. How did the influence of bringing the modern aesthetic and the inspiration of the Simonean Palm Weave, how did that even come together?

Growing up, a lot of the shirts that I wore basically had a lot of that, had a lot of flowers, had a lot of weaving designs on ’em, etchings on them with flowers or leaves, whatever that sort of entailed. And so to me, it was just what was culturally appropriate, but at the same time what was my favorite cultural designs to wear, so that I could make it mine. But still, it’s cultural.

It was cool being able to do that and then throughout that entire process, I don’t know, it is unique because if you go out wearing it, I don’t think anybody would be able to tell that that’s a cultural look or whatever. And I think that’s super cool to mesh with how Perry’s style team had designed it–Only until the story or only until the reasoning of this design or this style, then you’re like, ‘Oh dude, okay, I get it now. That’s pretty dope.’ And then there’s also some things on my tattoos that you’ll catch somewhere around the designs. But yeah, I just thought it was super cool being able to do that and being able to use their expertise and helping design that within this collaboration.

Absolutely, that’s dope, man. What excites you about what you guys possibly have coming down the line?

Yeah, I think what excites me is the amount of culture and the amount of background that I’m able to share. We’re all used to sharing food with one another culturally like, man, I like this food, I like that food. But for me, being able to share my culture. I’m sure Perry Ellis is going to also team up with a lot of other people to be able to express themselves through the lens of what they think their culture looks like to them. And I just think it’s super cool that we’re able to share all of that through clothes.

That’s beautiful, man. Moving on, if we could talk some ball, man, I’d really like to talk ball.

Obviously Coach McDaniel just got extended for another few years. I’m sure you’re excited about that. Tell me a little bit about the relationship you guys have had and how you’ve grown within this offense. How has that transition been for you over the past few years?

Dude, I mean, if you got to hear his story as I’ve gotten to know Mike… It’s so much, man. It’s so much bigger than himself. And it’s so cool how he talks about interpersonal communication and then the emotional intelligence aspect of what it means to bring people along, what it means to him to be leading a group of men. He just talks about the difference of coaching and leading a lot of the times.

It’s really cool because, it’s not just me, but because I’m the face of the franchise for the Dolphins, it’s more adamant that everyone outside sees it, that I’m coming more into myself. But then there’s so many other dudes on the team that are able to do that because he empowers them to do so.

It’s been a long time coming for Mike, I would say, with this extension that he’s got and he’s enjoying it, he’s in the moment for sure. But knowing him, he’s like, man, I got to do right by all these dudes now with this extension. And I’m very, very happy for him.

Obviously the addition of a few weapons, a lot of speed over there in Miami. How’s it been just messing with these guys?

Yeah, we got fast dudes. And I’m not even talking about Reek and Jalen, I’m talking about the guys outside of Reek and Jalen. Those dudes are fast, but I just feel so bad because they’re all put on the back burner. They’re fast dudes, but they’re on the back burner because we have faster dudes.

And I know you guys, just speaking about the offense in general, have drawn comparisons to The Greatest Show on Turf and what that was like. I’m old enough to remember those old Rams teams that used to beat up on ‘em, and I see a lot of those similarities just in how your guys’ offenses run and how quick you get the ball out. I know a lot goes into it, but you guys do make it look easy on Sundays when you’re clicking on all cylinders, that’s for sure.

What do you think about flag football– the 2028 Olympics, four years from now, do you see yourself potentially putting your name in the hat?

Man, I would say it would be an amazing deal to be able to play in any Olympics, to be able to qualify to do any of that in whatever it is that you’re doing, to be a part of the Olympics, let alone be able to hopefully win something.

I would say this is just the beginning of what’s to come for the sport of football too, because then it’s not just a United States deal, it’s across the world and guys are like, Hmm, let’s pick this thing up. Let’s see what we can do with this. And I just think that’s cool that we’re able to share this sport, like basketball, We all know about the Dream Team then we know about what happened in what, 2009? When Kobe came–

2008.

2008, and Kobe came out and helped Team USA out and just all of that, being able to watch the

documentaries and whatnot. Man, that’s so cool to be able to represent your country. Dang, that’s dope. I think that’ll be so cool. I think that’ll be so dope.

You bring up basketball: do you think globally it’ll have that same impact on the ‘92 Dream team did as far growing the sport, and then obviously decades from now, we’ll see other players from the world actually coming into the NFL like we saw with the basketball boom kind of in the ‘90s and the 2000s. Do you potentially see flag being implemented in the Olympics having a similar impact for the NFL going forward?

That’s a great question. The NFL actually has a program for international players. So they come to a NFL team, and there’s 32 of them, and they’re on the team for three years. I guess it’s their way of being able to learn the game, if you will. But then I think of it too, and I’m like, dude, how? You don’t even know what’s going on with football. You have no background of football knowledge and you come in–Boom, hey, go play with the best! Whoa. How is that learning curve? How does that seem right to anyone?

And so I don’t know if it will have the same impact as basketball. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t want to say no and I don’t want say yes, because there’s just so many unknowns. I mean, if you haven’t done it since you were young, how does that make sense for you?

Exactly. And that is why I think it’s tough, just growing up when you’re a kid, you can just go grab a basketball and go shoot at the park, but football, it’s not like that. You won’t just see pickup football games.

You won’t just grab the ball and say hey, let’s just go throw.

Exactly. Before you get out of here, I do want to get this last one off. 2018, rewind it. I was watching it live, I’ll never forget it. The national championship game. You come in with the game-winning touchdown pass to Devonta Smith. Do you remember the play?

I played receiver, so I remember watching that and I’m like, oh, he’s squatting, he might let that thing go–And you did. Tell us about that, man. I’ve always wanted to know on that play specifically.

Well, yeah. So obviously the play before, I got sacked. That was probably one of the most unique plays because I got sacked, but in my head, I was so drawn into the moment. It wasn’t like, dude, I just lost the team the game. All we needed was the field goal to tie it and continue to play. But then it was like, all right, they’re signaling four verts from the sideline and I’m looking at Smitty, and me and Smitty, and he’s like “Yo”. I’m like, okay, I see him, but I’m not going to make it obvious. So let me look over here. I see that safety. Okay, let me just keep my focus on this right side because I know I’m going to the left side. And then as a freshman, nobody thinks you’re going to look over here and on your hitch, you’re going to be able to manipulate the safety to throw.

Yeah, you looked them off. Definitely.

So took the snap, did it, the safety, went out a little bit and then was looking backside and turned. And by that time, he was dead. Smitty was just down the sideline and just –

The rest is history, man.