Photography by @georgoskaramanus. Courtesy of LeagueFits.
“Even the way Michael Jordan used to wear his shorts on the court was fashion,” remarks Ian Pierno, the founder of LeagueFits, which chronicles the off-court fashion choices of NBA players as they make the short, sacred, and mouthwateringly monetizable walk from their team bus to the locker room. NBA fashion may have been around forever, but never has it been so well documented. Originating as a mere vertical of US-American basketball publication SLAM Magazine, LeagueFits has blown up: over 800,000 followers now regularly consume content of LeBron James in loud shirts, Russell Westbrook in monochromatic pastels, or Chris Paul donning some HBCU apparel. Supported by his former intern and now accomplice Joe Williams, not only is Pierno recording the sartorial choices of NBA players – he’s also styling them. The duo operate according to the theory “you look good, you feel good; you feel good, you play good,” encouraging players to reach their full on-court potential by indulging in some lit fits.
It’s not just that NBA players are flirting fashion; fashion has decisively moved towards the NBA. Under Virgil Abloh, Louis Vuitton launched two collections in partnership with the NBA in the past two years. It also released an absurd $2,000 leather basketball debossed with the brand’s signature monogram. Brands like Elder Statesman, Fear of God, and Canada Goose have also gotten in on the collaborative action. As the fashion and basketball universes continue to fuse and NBA players continue to push deeper into the avant-garde, LeagueFits has become an indispensable carousel of men’s fashion.
SLEEK sat down with Pierno and Williams to dig deeper into the rapidly evolving NBA fashion scene.
Photography by @georgoskaramanus. Courtesy of LeagueFits.
SLEEK: We have to start by going back to 2005, when the NBA instituted an implicitly racist dress code in response to what the league perceived as its “thuggish” mainstream image. It required players to sport neckties and suit jackets for all official off-court NBA appearances. How would you describe the impact that the dress code had on fashion in the NBA?
Ian Pierno: The dress code was racist as fuck. It was so pointless, too, because now Allen Iverson is just switching from baggy-ass sweats to a baggy-ass suit. And you could argue that the baggy-ass suit actually looked way worse.
I think what makes basketball so unique compared to other sports is the self-expression that it allows for, like in the tunnel with the sneakers, being in fucking rap songs, stuff like that. The dress code was like one of the biggest Ls that the NBA has ever taken just because it was muting their players in what’s truly a personality-driven league.
Joe Williams: I would also almost argue that if it weren’t for the dress code, we might not be be paying attention to NBA fashion to the same extent. I think it forced us to address that there’s something going on here – the league is paying attention to players’ clothes to the point that they want to restrict it. And then the players started to rebel against that.
IP: Technically, the dress code has actually never been formally repealed, it just stopped being enforced.
S: How has NBA fashion changed since you started the LeagueFits account in 2018?
IP: Fashion around the league is super normalized now. When LeagueFits started, it was basically just a rotation of like, LeBron, PJ Tucker, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Nick Young, every single day. Those were the guys who popped out and wore the super bold shit. Now we’re at this point where you can be like the ninth man on the Pacers’ bench and still be a LeagueFits star. You don’t have to be a multi-time All-Star like Russell Westbrook to be a fashion star anymore. If you get to the league, you can make yourself a superstar.
JW: An example that would be Frank Jackson: somebody who’s not crazy on the stat-line, doesn’t even make a ton of money, and he still modeled for a Fear of God campaign.
S: In terms of marketing and branding, NBA players are typically associated with sneakers. Everyone knows the Jordan Air Force 1s, for instance. But now we’re beginning to see different partnerships. Klay Thompson, for instance, has a sponsorship deal with Tissot watches. Do you expect more of this to continue into the realm of high fashion?
IP: Absolutely. You’re already seeing it: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander modeled for a Louis Vuitton campaign – granted, that was the NBA collaboration, but that just proves the point. At All-Star Weekend, for instance, Moncler spent a ton of money to have Thanasis Antetokounmpo just take pictures in this Moncler jacket. This wasn’t a thing for basketball players five years ago. Even two years ago.
JW: A step further would be these guys who are establishing their own brands, where they’re not even looking for collaboration. You got like, Dope$oul by Kelly Oubre, Jr., Honor the Gift by Russell Westbrook, Most Hated by Nick Young… Nick Young is not playing basketball anymore, but with this clothing line he’s still gonna make money for the rest of his life.
S: What do you think makes the NBA such fertile ground for high fashion?
IP: Part of the reason for that is, say I’m styling or Joe’s styling an actor, maybe they have a couple editorials a year, a couple red carpets, but, you know, it’s sporadic. With these basketball guys, if you make the playoffs, you can play literally 100 games in a year. There are so many opportunities for placement.
All these brands will now pay these fashion PR companies to put their clothes in a showroom. I’ve seen these showrooms that didn’t give a fuck about basketball players a few years ago – like you couldn’t get approved to put clothes on a basketball player, now that’s like half of what they do.
S: Absolutely, the element of visibility is essential. The @LeagueFits account is essentially a nonstop runway.
IP: It’s silly. Think about it: it’s actually kind of silly as fuck. It’s literally a 20-second walk from the bus to the locker room. If you see an actor wear something to an event, they’re gonna wear that outfit for the night, so there has to be something practical about it. These basketball outfits are super impractical: it’s literally just for the camera. For example, David Duke, Jr., who I style, the other day he wore this big-ass Rick Owens coat – it was like 85 degrees in Brooklyn that day.
Photography by @georgoskaramanus. Courtesy of LeagueFits.
S: Do you think this movement towards bolder, more provocative, more extreme fashion is fueled more by the players or by the industry?
JW: I feel like it’s fueled by the music, dude. I feel like that’s where it all comes from, honestly.
IP: Basketball players are getting seats at tables that they didn’t get 10 years ago, which includes being friends with designers, musicians, and things like that. That seat at the table wasn’t really open that long ago, but now like there’s basketball players that were friends with Virgil [Abloh] – and then Virgil’s friends with all these musicians. That whole cultural world, basketball players are a part of it now. Once they started to be a little fashion forward, they started to just exponentially go crazy with it.
JW: The players are just super marketable: even the way a basketball court is structured, there are courtside seats where your feet are on the wood: you see their faces, there are no helmets, there are only 12 people on the team.
S: When people think of the NBA or professional sports in general, it tends to be linked to a kind of intensity and strength that is often coded as masculine. Athletes’ engagement with high fashion, which is typically seen as effeminate, kind of challenges these assumptions. It’s really exciting to see some NBA players experiment with fluidity in their fashion choices.
IP: It’s awesome: I think in 20 years all fashion is going to be basically unisex anyway. In 20 years, 90% of what we wear is just going to be fire pieces rather than like “women’s jacket” and “men’s jacket.” The line between male and female is just gonna blur and I think that’s a really good thing, It makes fashion more accessible.
These NBA players are starting to normalize that kind of stuff. Like Jordan Clarkson: super attractive, tattoos, friends with famous as fuck people, cool hair, hot girlfriend… and he’s the dude who can push the boundaries of some of this shit. All these straight, boring dudes from like, Iowa, who idolize him – they see him wearing a kilt. And they’re like, ‘if Jordan can do it…’
JW: We’re pushing into a space where, even if you don’t like it, more and more people are now growing to accept it because it’s becoming more present in the culture. You don’t have to wear a kilt but you can like be like, ‘Yo, Jordan Clarkson, you got some swag.’
S: In terms of NBA fashion, what’s going to happen next?
IP: Everybody’s gonna be a fashion star. Like, everyone. That’s the goal. Every tunnel is gonna be sponsored, every tunnel is gonna have insane lighting, every tunnel’s gonna get a red carpet, every player is gonna have a stylist. I think these basketball agencies will start just putting stylists on retainer, just like, ‘Work with our roster.’ This is just the tip of the iceberg right now. It’s like an arms race for basketball fashion supremacy.
You can listen to Pierno and Williams’ podcast Survival of the Fitted here.