The NBA is back, and with the new season comes a formal introduction to this season's fit culture. Think "first day of school" energy but with much more at stake—the opening night tunnel is a valuable first impression and an invitation to Go Off.
With all of that in mind, here are the best NBA fits from October. Love to @LeagueFits, the NBA's most important running archive.
This is a good fit, riding the Kapital/Needles/Japanese streetwear wave something heavy. I'm all good with that, and Simmons is one of the league's most consistent fit guys. It's all about consistency in the NBA, and when you map that idea onto fits, Simmons is All-NBA.
But I'm here to talk about the Nike Blazers. These Blazers—which look like cardboard, in the best possible way—are from Nike's collaboration with Cactus Plant Flea Market, Cynthia Lu's fast-rising streetwear brand. Nike billed this sneaker as a customizable product, accessible through its "Nike for You" site, where buyers customize famous Nike lines to their specifications. However, these sold out quickly, and most of the people who strategically positioned themselves to race to the checkout designed them very badly. When you look at resale sites, the designs range from "meh" to ghastly.
Simmons got some good ones, though, custom Blazers that have the right balance of bright colors and really capture the bootleggy spirit of the line, which in an ideal world would be a mass-market product but in reality is kept on ice for famous people. These Blazers are sweet as hell. —CG
Ibaka has been waiting to bust this fit out since June. Ibaka may have picked out this outfit years ago. He’s been dressing for a ring ceremony for a decade. Dress for the championship you want. Big ring energy. —JF
People love that saying, “You can never be overdressed or overeducated," mainly to justify wearing a suit to happy hour because they were just so busy with work that they didn’t have the time to drop off their jacket before the bar.
I can’t speak to the overeducated part, but you certainly can be overdressed. The whole point of choosing an outfit is to dress against the context of an occasion. And generally I think tuxedos—even at weddings—are corny unless you’re royalty. But I’m all for making opening night a formal event. NBA opening night is the 2019 version of the first night of a symphony or opera, and PG killed this. —JF
We see this a lot today. Something cool cultivates a following, then becomes self-aware and either sells out or becomes a caricature of what made them appealing in the first place. It’s why the second album is always the best. And after a year of news cycles covering PJ Tucker’s "drip," opening night was the perfect setting for Tucker to strut into ubiquity, but instead he hit us with Nothing Was the Same. Vacation vibes to remind us that we cut into his summer with some Vans to prove his style doesn’t pander anything—not even to a silly NBA season opener. —JF
I kept the @LeagueFits caption live here because it fits the energy. I can't speak to whether the cap is tossed off or not, but my interpretation is that by merit of trying something out and not just wearing Allbirds, he's an SF fashion god on arrival. D'Angelo Goes West and updates his look a little bit. —CG
