Balancing Fashion with a Day Job

LOS ANGELES – Serving for their respected team’s city on billboards then to serve a look immediately after. NBA players are taking on active roles on the fashion side of things.

NBA players have cracked the code on what the walk from the hotel lobby to the bus to the bus to the locker room can do for them. Athletes have found ways to create or represent brands through this. Russell Westbrook has his brand Honor The Gift. Jordan Clarkson represents Lululemon having his own collection with them, who has been arguably one of the most influential athlete’s when it comes to fashion. Shai Gilegeous-Alexander does not miss on or off the court, he is making his mark and has built his image in fashion so well that he’ll more than likely be somewhere directing a high end fashion brand after his basketball career.

It helps smaller brands as well. Local brands try to put athletes in their clothing pieces because it’s like the mike effect, everyone wants to be just as cool as their favorite athlete. Even popular brands know the rise of basketball and fashion. You see brands like Kith, Skims, Fear of God, Canada Goose, Off-White partnering and launching collections to keep in touch with the latest fashion trends.

These athletes can be at fashion week in Paris or New York for fun but they also are the ones who have a chance to to turn it into a real business later on down the road after their basketball career. 

In 2005, Stern executed an obligatory clothing regulation for the NBA, requiring all players to dress in "business or moderate clothing" while addressing the NBA in any official capacity.

NBA fashion took a turn in the mid-2010s. No era has ever paid this much attention to what people wear, this is the era for NBA fashion. But we also have to give the credit where it’s due to the OG’s before tunnel fits were a true thing. Walt Frazier, Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, , Allen Iverson are just to name a few. 

SLAM’s LeagueFits account on Instagram has also led the way in showcasing player fashion circa 2018.The page has accumulated one million followers within a six year span. The account’s annual All-LeagueFits Awards is a pretty big deal and so is having your work on their page as a stylist.

This league is now overflowing with fashion icons. Early on you could say a ball player wanted to emulate themselves as their favorite rapper and vice versa but now the players are just trying to hold their own in the fashion world.

Other sports are trying to ride this wave but NBA fits will always be more popular over NFL outfits, that’s just how it is. If you’re an NBA player and you want to stand out aside from being on a court, you need to have a sense of fashion. Statlines, minutes, all what you did on the court that night aside. You can be the 12th man on the bench and still get fly. When tunnel fits first came along only the most elite would have a personal stylist but now even the rookies have a stylist and fashion consultants before they get drafted because it’s a brand and a way to boost your image.

But let’s be clear here this isn’t just about some professional basketball players wearing expensive clothes. It’s about bringing two worlds together, something that once seemed so far apart because they were once two different worlds. 

Basketball and Fashion.