Chad Brown loves fashion and basketball, so why not combine the two? That was his big pitch to the top brass of the National Basketball Association, where he worked, in 2016: reporting on the growing overlap between the two worlds. However, the idea was embraced by C-suite crickets, so Brown pursued it in his own time with an Instagram account dedicated to fiery fits (read: stylish outfits) of the sport’s hottest players.
“I thought, I’ll just do it because nobody else does it, and I want to see it,” he tells T&C with a shrug. “And then it kept growing and growing.”
Today, Brown oversees @NBAFashionFits, an account with 183,000 followers and an influential force at the center of a buzzing new media beat. Besides him, there are @LeagueFits (843,000), @MoreThanStats (75,000) and @ProTrending (70,000), all struggling to identify Gucci, Hermès and Dior, who are the supernovas of basketball. That’s in addition to the players themselves, who are increasingly posting their outfits on their own Instagram accounts, or slipping into Brown’s DMs imploring him to hype them up. It’s indicative of the way athletes, once marginalized in the fashion game, are now center court. “Before they were dressing up, but there was no platform for that,” says Brown.
All of which revolves around the tunnel walk, the basketball world’s answer to the red carpet. Previously a mundane, inadvertent move from the arena entrance to the locker room, that short distance is now, during the finals, a glitzy runway in its own right, featuring products from designers fresh off the runway, men rich and powerful, fans who they scream and the flash of paparazzi light bulbs.
In 2018, LeBron James, then with the Cleveland Cavaliers, persuaded his teammates to wear Thom Browne suits in the tunnel.
Lachlan Cunningham
For a generation of young, style-savvy NBA stars like Steph Curry (Golden State Warriors), James Harden (Philadelphia 76ers), Serge Ibaka (Milwaukee Bucks), Kyle Kuzma (Washington Wizards), and Jordan Clarkson (Utah Jazz) they are the pole stars of fashion that outshine the musicians and actors of yesteryear.
They are rich, famous, with towering frames that easily match any Greek statue; in other words, a perfect match to be a modern mannequin. For proof, think back to the moment in 2018 when superstar LeBron James, then a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, persuaded his entire team to don Thom Browne’s trademark shrunken gray suits en masse. He set the internet on fire, generating many rumors and articles from GQ and the Gray Lady herself.
James Harden wears adidas x Gucci before Game 4 of the 2022 NBA Playoffs on May 8, 2022.
Courtesy of Gucci
“We forget that fashion has always been part of the NBA culture,” says stylist Courtney Mays, who works with Phoenix Suns point guard Chris Paul, among others. Just look back at Magic Johnson in a fur jacket in 1988 or Dennis Rodman’s entire headlining career for proof. “But because of social media it has grown exponentially.”
The fashion industry is well aware of the celebrity of these athletes and the influence of their social platforms. In 2020, the late Virgil Abloh and Louis Vuitton partnered with the NBA for a recurring capsule collection that launched its third iteration in early June, this time featuring an official portmanteau for the league’s Larry O’Brien Trophy.
The third and final installment in the Louis Vuitton X NBA Capsule Collection, featuring the Louis Vuitton Trophy Travel Case.
Gemma French for LV
Matt Powell, a vice president at market research firm NPD Group that focuses on the sports industry, says what’s different now is that gamers are more aware of the power of branding. “I think these players recognized that social media was an opportunity to showcase their own style and taste,” he says.
One cannot help but see this development as part of a larger cultural shift around masculinity and self-representation. “We put athletes in this box, in this very masculine world,” adds Mays. “But why can’t they love fashion? The way you dress affects the way you feel.” While they wear uniforms most of the time, these short tunnels give us glimpses of their personalities, from Paul’s sleek tailoring to Clarkson’s edgy style (skirts!) he carries an extra pair with him.
Milwaukee Bucks Serge Ibaka at Hermès in June 2019.
Courtesy of Hermes
Now, Brown says, he’s noticed that beyond Amiri skinny jeans and Chelsea boots giving way to looser silhouettes, players are also cleverly using tunnel photo shoots to highlight causes close to their hearts, like when Mays and Paul decided wear clothing from the country’s historically black colleges and universities.
“We said, ‘Let’s really use those few seconds,’” says Mays. “We want to use style as a platform.” So, sure, a game-winning shot from the free throw line might excite some die-hard fans, but for many, the most exciting action doesn’t happen on the court anymore.
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Source: www.townandcountrymag.com