Fashion's growing impact on the world of professional athletics

Fashion’s growing impact on the world of professional athletics

By COOPER JACOBELI Staff Writer

Off–White, Adidas, Nike, and many other clothing and show designers have crawled their way onto the sports scene. Some say it’s good for the company involved and how it affects the players as a whole, but others say that the attention is getting pushed onto other things besides the players’ performance.

The National Basketball Association and the National Football League come to mind when thinking about fashion in sports. For example, an athlete’s shoes idolized by social media simply because they were worn during warm-ups or a singular game.

To emphasize my point, next time there’s an NFL or NBA game on TV, sit down and pay close attention to what the reporters talk about during pre–game time and what they show.

A very current and advertised merging between fashion designer and athlete is the collaboration between Serena Williams and Off–White. Virgil Abloh is the spearhead for the new deal, as well as the CEO of Off–White. He created two shoes and three different uniforms for Williams and they will soon be available to be purchased online.

The retail for each pair of shoes is $190. However, I personally challenge you to try and buy them online for retail. Now, I buy and sell shoes in the real world, outside of writing these articles, and I can tell you that once those shoes are sold–out and off the retail market, they are going to be extremely hard to find for under $500.

The market that these fashion tycoons set up is more-orless a monopoly throughout different sports. Nike sponsors teams in the National Basketball Association, National Football League and even the National Hockey League. Adidas has too many overseas sponsorships to count, and Reebok holds sole ownership of Mixed Martial Arts. This minor statistic in today’s world of fashion and sports presents to you – the viewer and the consumer of such products – how involved fashion is.

Now, look back at my original statement and now reflect on how much I have talked about individual athlete’s accomplishments without their fashion in mind. See? In today’s culture it’s almost impossible to think about an athlete without thinking about their signature shoe or how many jerseys they have sold. It’s a double–edged sword in respect to what being an athlete means. I’ve talked to up– and–coming college baseball athletes and when I ask them about what they want their career to look like they’ve said, “I’d love to be sponsored by Nike. Imagine how cool that would be.” Their answers aren’t about their Earned Run Average or Batting Percentage or even how many autographs they can sign before heading out of the stadium. No; it’s about what they wear.

No shame or judgment is intended despite the callous nature of this article. These are my observations and it is my opinion that fashion is pushing its way into the forefront of what’s most important on the field, court or ice.