Just take a walk around the University of Michigan’s campus and you will see constant reminders that sports undeniably permeate every aspect of American life. Last week’s Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs was one of our annual reminders of the vice grip that athletics has on wider American culture. Athletes have been stars for years, but the age of social media has propelled our athletic heroes into true international superstardom. Both the first and second most-followed Instagram accounts are those of professional athletes — athletes are the world’s biggest stars, and they wield both a unique and sizable influence on our culture. That includes fashion.
Whether you believe that popular culture operates as a microcosm of American life or as an ideal to which we aspire, the lives of the rich, famous and privileged are a frequent subject of discourse among all social classes, and professional athletes make up a sizable segment of the influencer class. With influencers come trends — we have all seen the endless discussion of TikTok trends and celebrity fashion iconoclasm. If you think discussion of trends and celebrity is too lowbrow or kitsch to engage with, you would be sorely mistaken. Celebrities are the most highly publicized, talked about and ridiculed humans on earth — just look at Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift. To ignore them is to ignore a significant segment of popular culture. What I seek to do here is explore a new kind of celebrity and style icon — the male professional athlete.
Men’s and women’s fashion have followed much different paths. Menswear bloggers usually operate in one of two niches: traditional menswear, à la the suit, tie and pocket square; or streetwear, complete with athletic sneakers, bomber jackets and other pieces of clothing formerly shunned by menswear aficionados. The professional athlete, more frequently than not, bridges the gap between these two polar cultures. Remember Twitter’s reaction to LeBron James’ infamous Thom Browne suit? The jokes were plentiful, the insults creative and the conversation lively, with Twitter users drawing comparisons to Prince George of Wales and AC/DC — all because a professional athlete wore an outfit that dared to go against the norm.
James’ suit told us about more than his bold fashion decisions and expensive taste. It told us about the evolution of the professional athlete as an entity whose public appearance and fashion are scrutinized to the same degree as actors and actresses. This was not the case for NBA players in the 1970s or even early 1980s. No one cared what Walt Frazier and John Havlicek wore on game day. Part of the NBA player’s shift towards global celebrity and stardom is the NBA’s emergence as a global media empire and worldwide cultural sensation, thanks in large part to the work of former commissioner David Stern and NBA legend Michael Jordan. But the shift also has to do with our ever-evolving perception of the athlete as a celebrity.
When the professional athlete becomes a textbook example of the public’s ideals, the fashion brands that the public consumes must adapt and evolve to satiate its consumers’ new desires. It is no coincidence that when Pharrell Williams debuted his first collection at Louis Vuitton, James was in attendance — the worlds of haute couture and athletics have become intertwined. Our societal sensibilities have changed and, with that, so must the people we look up to. Athletes are the role models many young boys emulate, so it is no surprise that young men look to athletes for fashion inspiration and fashion houses pounce on the chance to capture that market.
James is one of the greatest athletes of all time, so, understandably, he receives the scrutiny and idolatry that other celebrities do, but the athlete as a style icon spans far beyond the legends of the sport. If someone said 20 years ago that a career role-player like P.J. Tucker would be profiled in Esquire and that his stylist would be interviewed in the prominent pop culture magazine Complex, they would have been dismissed and laughed at.
Sports encapsulate so much about our society. Love them or hate them, sports are fundamental to the American way of life. The NBA is just one example of the many sports leagues whose stars have transcended sports and broken into a segment of pop culture from which they were previously excluded — NFL’s Odell Beckham Jr, English soccer’s David Beckham and University of Southern California football’s Caleb Williams to name a few. What does this say about menswear, though? About fashion? About America? The professional athlete as a style icon shows not only the growing popularity of sporting figures as global brand ambassadors but also the diffusion between the high and low arts — between streetwear and haute couture, between Off-White Jordan 1s and Thom Browne suits. This is the very kind of diffusion that allowed the dearly departed Virgil Abloh to take the reins of historic French fashion house Louis Vuitton’s menswear collections. So next time you open up X, formerly known as Twitter, and see people making fun of an athlete’s fashion choices, think to yourself: “How did we get here?”
Daily Arts Writer Rose Iorio can be reached at iorio@umich.edu.