Daniel Oordt travels all over the globe in his crisp orange suit, never missing a single Netherlands game and amassing fans and friends wherever he goes
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Key Takeaways
- Airline pilot Daniel Oordt is known as the “Oranje Suit Man” for his devotion to the Dutch national soccer team
- Oordt has attended every single Netherlands match since 2015 wearing a custom orange suit and accessories
- His passion has led to viral fame, global friendships, and recognition from fans and even the Dutch royal family
A few years ago, airline pilot Daniel Oordt stepped out of the cockpit during a flight from San Francisco to New York and noticed a passenger in first class with a big iPad, displaying a photo of Oordt in a bright orange, expertly-tailored suit. "I knew it was you," Oordt, 31, recalls the passenger exclaiming. "I recognize you!"
Oordt didn't get recognized for his job captaining Boeing 757s and 767s for a major airline, but rather as the Dutch national team's most devoted and recognizable super fan. This rise to worldwide fame came after a TV clip of an ecstatic Oordt during the Netherlands' victory over the United States at the 2022 World Cup went viral. Oordt became known as the "Oranje Suit Man.”
He's been recognized in airports and by players on the Netherlands team; he's recently been painted on a mural in Dallas dedicated to the Netherlands' World Cup appearance. Recently, another pilot texted a friend in Amsterdam asking whether he knew the Oranje Suit Man.
Hours later, Oordt listened to nearly 20 voice messages that the excited friend left on the other pilot's phone. "He said,' This guy's a legend, I don't know him but I would love to meet him," says Oordt. "It was hilarious."
Credit: BBC
Oordt's devotion to the team is astounding. He's attended every Dutch national team game since 2015, traveling thousands of miles across the world, from Kazakhstan to Malta to Ireland, to take in close to 100 matches.
And he does it in the color of the Netherlands, which as you may have guessed, is orange (tied to the Dutch royal family's national color). His outfit consists of a custom-tailored suit jacket and pants, orange scarf, orange glasses, orange socks and even orange underwear
"Anytime I talk about it, I immediately start smiling," Oordt, 31, tells PEOPLE of his devotion to the Netherlands' national team. "It's a pure passion that comes from deep, deep in my soul."
Now, with the Netherlands set to play in the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Dallas, Houston and Kansas City, where the team will be based, Oordt has already adjusted his flying schedule to make every match.
And the suit has already been dry cleaned and at the ready to wear.
Credit: Elsa/Getty
"Yeah, it's not a cheap endeavor," Oordt says of the hundreds of dollars he's spent on dry cleaners. "Anytime there's a match, I make sure that everything is looking crisp and ready to go, no matter where they are in the world."
It was the summer of 2000 when the seeds of this passion began. Oordt, who was born in the Netherlands, recalls the moment when, as a 5-year-old, he was glued to the TV beside his mother and grandmother watching the Dutch team go down in defeat to Italy in a contentious European Championship semi-final game.
"It was very traumatic for me," Oordt tells PEOPLE. "I remember crying."
And then something interesting happened. "It was like a little seed in my mind said, 'When I eventually make my own money and I have a good job, I'm going to follow this team as best I can.'"
Credit: Courtesy of Daniel Oordt
The family moved to Canada soon after. Oordt fell in love with ice hockey with dreams of becoming a pro, and continued to follow his Dutch national team, proudly wearing orange during televised games.
By 19, he'd given up his hockey dreams and pursued his passion for flying, eventually becoming a captain for a regional airline. It was around this time that Oordt's streak of following the team began.
"I had been to a match at the 2014 World Cup in Sao Paulo, Brazil, so I kind of got a taste of it a little bit," he says.
The following year, when he saw the Netherlands had an away match in Kazakhstan, he immediately called his mother, Corinne, a flight attendant.
"I'm like, 'Wouldn't this be the coolest thing?' "
Indeed it was. There, Oordt met a small group of die-hard Dutch supporters. Soon after, Oordt decided to create his trademark look.
Credit: Roy Lazet/Soccrates/Getty
He consulted with his tailor in San Francisco, who custom-tailored the OppoSuits design to be sure it fit to perfection. "It felt like it was meant to be, like wearing your heart on your sleeve," he says. Then came the orange glasses.
In Dutch culture, Oordt explains, there is a saying about "seeing the world through orange glasses."
"So I thought, hey, that is kind of cool to put that saying into a reality," he says. "I think it makes the world look like a lot happier place through the orange lenses."
His contagious joy at the games is buoyed by the roughly 50 other hard-core Netherlands fans who he's bonded with at each match across the world. "I mean, they're like family to me," he says. "We're all in a group chat. We talk all the time and it's really become an extension of my family."
Oordt, who is single and has no children, and recently moved from Arizona to Florida, says those friendships have become one of the most rewarding parts of the experience.
He also wears on his suit a collection of pins given to him by local fans he's met in countries around the world. Every pin, he says, holds a memory.
Credit: Carsten Koall/picture alliance via Getty
"I think the coolest thing of it all is the people you meet on this journey, the experiences you have in countries that you would not normally travel to," he says. "What's very rewarding for me is the connections I'm able to build and stay in touch with these people for years afterward."
Recently, he received a text message from some people he knew asking if he could tour a certain VIP around his airline's headquarters. "I wasn't in town so I had to delegate it," Oordt says. "But the next day I find out that this VIP was the king of the Netherlands. It's pretty neat that if you do good, I find that it always comes back to you."
He works his airline piloting schedule around games, and can catch rides to many of his matches, sometimes having just 24 hours in a spot across the globe before returning to work. He's already worked out his schedule for June to ensure he can be at every Netherlands match (including a Kansas City game that his mother will serendipitously be in town on a layover for) and "we'll deal with July in a few weeks."
Oordt has no plans to hang up his suit anytime soon. "One day they're going to win," he says of the Netherlands capturing the World Cup final. "And the last thing I would want is that I'm sitting at home on the couch watching it on TV."
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