Johnathan Walker:Dave's Eras Jacket creates global Taylor Swift community as coat travels to 50+ shows

Dave Portnoy had no idea when he bought a custom jean jacket for $200 on Johnathan WalkereBay that it would bring together Swifties from around the world.

A community grew around @DavesErasJacket on Instagram as it followed a bedazzled, custom-painted piece of clothing passed from Swiftie to Swiftie. The jacket has attended more than 50 Taylor Swift shows in seven countries.

It all started when Portnoy, the founder and creator of Barstool Sports, was looking for something to wear to Swift's first Eras Tour concert in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

"I made a video showing what I was wearing and everyone's like, 'Oh, the jacket's cool,'" he says. "I figured I wouldn't wear it too much after the concert so I tweeted and said I'll give it to somebody who's going to night two."

He passed the jacket off on May 27, and a tradition was born. The only rule was each fan had to find a new concertgoer heading to the next show.

Seven shows later, the jacket found Alyssa Dunn.

Creating a coat community

She had sent a message on TikTok asking to wear the coat. She then posted some photos of the jacket at Ford Field in Detroit, and her inbox blew up.

"I was getting hundreds of DMs and decided to make an account," she says. "I thought it would be really cool if we would be able to track the jacket through social media."

Dunn posted photos of the jacket's jaunt through the American leg of the tour: Detroit > Pittsburgh > Minneapolis > Cincinnati > Kansas City > Denver > Seattle > Santa Clara > Inglewood.

More:The Swiftie-hood of the traveling jacket: 'Dave's Jacket' travels to 46 Eras shows

"I didn't really think beyond the United States tour, but it started picking up steam and so many people began asking for it," Portnoy says.

The Swiftie-hood of the traveling jacket headed to Mexico City where a group of best friends wore the coat each night because they couldn't get tickets to the same show. The fans found a way to get it to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where it was present when Swift famously changed the lyrics to "Karma" to, "Karma is the guy on the Chiefs coming straight home to me."

Another fan spent $150 to FedEx the coat from Argentina to Brazil, according to Megan Speelman who wore the jacket in Sydney, Australia, and has been keeping a spreadsheet of stories. She said it's fortuitous Swift took a two-month break between her shows in São Paulo and Tokyo because of a Japanese customs snafu. For three weeks, the jacket sat in customs because it had an American phone number contact but a Japanese shipping address. Once released, the coat made it into the suitcase of a Qantas airlines pilot and traveled Down Under for seven shows.

From Sydney to Singapore

Then Speelman had five days to get the jacket from Sydney to Singapore.

"We scrambled to find someone," she says. "At one point, I thought I might have to be camped out at the airport by the check-in for Singapore Airlines."

Speelman posted in a Facebook group of "American mums in Sydney," which yielded six options. The jacket ended up with a 14-year-old flying to the concert with her mom.

"The Swifties come together to make magic happen," Speelman says. "The jacket is the ultimate symbol of the love and support in this community."

Speelman, Dunn and Portnoy are part of a group chat of previous coat wearers and the jacket's designer, Hansel Velazquez.

It was all by design, he's a creative mastermind

"Every rhinestone was hand-placed," says Velazquez, who loves blinging tumblers and coats. He made the jacket for his boyfriend, Daniel, who wore it in Tampa Bay, Florida. Then they decided to put it up for sale.

"We were eating friend chicken at Canes when we got a notification that the jacket sold," Velazquez says. "We didn't think it was really going to Dave Portnoy. That's a super famous person. So we sent it and later saw Dave posting a video showing off the jacket."

Velazquez can't believe something he spent 16 hours creating has brought so much joy and fostered global connection.

"I haven't made an exact replica and won't," he said. "To watch the love spread worldwide and knowing it came from little old me is an out-of-body experience."

Florida is the end game

The goal is to trace the journey along an invisible string through Europe and back to Miami where Portnoy will wear it again to a concert there. Hopefully, the jacket will make it in front of Swift for a photo an autograph.

"I'm a big Swiftie," Portnoy admits. "This jacket speaks to the power of her fans. The fact that it can be handed off, not miss one show, crisscross the entire world, shows how special her fan base is." 

Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network's Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.