Speaker 1: This podcast is part of the seventy Sixers podcast network
Speaker 1: search seventy Sixers podcast wherever you get your pods. It's
Speaker 1: a typical game day, not the atypical new game day
Speaker 1: of the COVID nineteen era for which the rulebook and
Speaker 1: rhythms are still being written, but before the coronavirus changed
Speaker 1: the world sports and NBA basketball included. Hours before tip off,
Speaker 1: Alex Subers is preparing for what is arguably one of
Speaker 1: his most significant assignments of the day, typically leaving the
Speaker 1: office around two pm and get into the arena around
Speaker 1: two thirty. It changes depending on the start time of
Speaker 1: the game, but it's typically you know, five hours before
Speaker 1: the game. As the seventy Sixers team photographer, the twenty
Speaker 1: six year old Subers has to be in a lot
Speaker 1: of places when he's shooting a game and needs to
Speaker 1: keep his head and eyes on swivels to capture lots
Speaker 1: of things. But as critical as it is for him
Speaker 1: to be in the perfect baseline position for a signature
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons mean mug pose after a dunk or an
Speaker 1: immediately viral Joel embiid swooping airplane celebration, Supers also has
Speaker 1: to be ready for another very particular type of shot,
Speaker 1: the walk in photo, and the only way to get
Speaker 1: it is by being one of the first people in
Speaker 1: the building. The walk in photo is when the players
Speaker 1: are dressing up as they're coming in for game nights.
Speaker 1: So you're seeing shoes, pants, top, it's a shirt, jacket, whatever,
Speaker 1: to the tunnel or get out of their car. It's
Speaker 1: to show their heading into the game that night. Over
Speaker 1: the last couple of years, the walk in shot has
Speaker 1: become musty social media material. And while these photos and
Speaker 1: videos have proliferated across all professional sports, in no league
Speaker 1: is this content more compelling than in the NBA. Fashion
Speaker 1: is such an integral part of what the MBA players
Speaker 1: love to celebrate. This is des Rondor set, the Sixers
Speaker 1: vice president of business development, take the walking photos, as
Speaker 1: we call them, the players coming off the bus walking
Speaker 1: into the game. I've never seen a moment that has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with the sport itself be celebrated as much.
Speaker 1: I know we do it at the seventy six years,
Speaker 1: but ESPN and TNT part of that lead up to
Speaker 1: the game is showing the players walking off the bus
Speaker 1: and highlighting what they're actually wearing. Think of guys like
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, Dwayne Wade, Lebron James, and Chris Paul. These
Speaker 1: are all stars who study style like they would game film.
Speaker 1: It really gives them the opportunity to connect with their
Speaker 1: fans and people off the court, you know, which is
Speaker 1: really what we're doing on social media all the time.
Speaker 1: So I think it makes a lot of sense. Jamie
Speaker 1: Losanti is a senior editor for Sports Illustrated, and she
Speaker 1: helps curate the publication's annual Fashionable fifty project. These guys
Speaker 1: have really they put a lot of work into that
Speaker 1: five fifteen second walk from the arena tunnel into the
Speaker 1: locker room. On the surface, shooting a walk in photo
Speaker 1: might seem like it gets kind of mundane, you know,
Speaker 1: a player walks into arena and the photographer takes the picture.
Speaker 1: For Supers, it's become the exact opposite and an aspect
Speaker 1: of the gig that he admits he never really saw
Speaker 1: coming when he first got into photography a bunch of
Speaker 1: years ago. It's actually one of my favorite parts of
Speaker 1: the night. It's one of the only times that I'm
Speaker 1: actually able to get a little bit creative, you know,
Speaker 1: game nights, game nights is for a photographer are pretty straightforward, right, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't have control over the lighting in the arena
Speaker 1: during the game. I can't really move around too much
Speaker 1: during the game, so you're typically you're getting some the
Speaker 1: same photos every night of gameplay. But that's why when
Speaker 1: you're doing the walk in photos, like, you can shoot
Speaker 1: it in so many different ways. I can mess with
Speaker 1: the lighting. I can shoot it with a hard on
Speaker 1: camera flash. I can shoot it with actual strobes set
Speaker 1: up in the hallway. I can go out into the
Speaker 1: parking lot and shoot them kind of getting out of
Speaker 1: their cars and have that vibe. So there's like all
Speaker 1: these different ways that I can mess around with the
Speaker 1: lighting or just the location of where I'm shooting them
Speaker 1: for their walk in that kind of make it a
Speaker 1: little more fun. Well, it might be a bit of
Speaker 1: a stretch to say that style has become a synonymous
Speaker 1: as skill with NBA players, the premise isn't that far fetched.
Speaker 1: Fashion is a massive part of the NBA brand and
Speaker 1: especially individual players brands. We now live in the world
Speaker 1: of League Fits, which is an Instagram account with nearly
Speaker 1: five hundred and sixty thousand followers that's dedicated exclusively to
Speaker 1: NBA player fashion. What's interesting is just how much more
Speaker 1: important it's gotten over the last couple of years. So
Speaker 1: I started three years ago with the team, and my
Speaker 1: first year we would occasionally do it. We weren't doing
Speaker 1: it for every game. It was just like it was
Speaker 1: a big game or if it was playoffs or something
Speaker 1: like that, we would do it. But it was not
Speaker 1: by no means was the like every game we were
Speaker 1: there and had to be there for walking's right. But
Speaker 1: starting the next year, for the last two years, it's
Speaker 1: one of those things that has just like we've seen
Speaker 1: it taken off and it's just like there's there's Instagram
Speaker 1: accounts that are literally built around what these guys are
Speaker 1: wearing pregame. It's gotten so important over the last two years,
Speaker 1: and I think, you know, it just helps them build
Speaker 1: their brand and it gives them an opportunity to have
Speaker 1: people see them not just in their uniform. If you
Speaker 1: revisit the history of the Philadelphia seventy sixers, you'll find
Speaker 1: legendary figures from every era. Wilt in the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: Julius in the seventies and eighties, Ai in the nineties
Speaker 1: and two thousands, For as much as these Hall of
Speaker 1: Famers were recognized for their talent on the court, they
Speaker 1: also intersected into the realm of fashion as well. In
Speaker 1: today's NBA, plenty of seventy sixers are DRIP certified and
Speaker 1: carving out their own identity through fashion. On this edition
Speaker 1: of Here They Come, we examine the crossover between the
Speaker 1: seventy Sixers brand and the fashion world. Welcome to Here
Speaker 1: They Come, the longest form narrative podcast series from the
Speaker 1: seventy Sixers podcast network. I'm Brian Seltzer, and this episode
Speaker 1: is called The Right Fit. How Fashion is woven into
Speaker 1: the seventy six Ers fabric. It was a few weeks
Speaker 1: before the start of training camp this fall, and new
Speaker 1: seventy sixer Howell Nato was outfitted for the occasion. Except
Speaker 1: the occasion had nothing to do with basketball. Neto was
Speaker 1: in New York at Mercedes Benz of Manhattan, walking a
Speaker 1: makeshift runway as part of an event for the city's
Speaker 1: famed Fashion Week. So it wasn't totally my idea. Now,
Speaker 1: this was the handiwork of NATO's manager, who Nato says
Speaker 1: has been trying to break him into the fashion world
Speaker 1: for a few years now, I'm like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: not really me. I don't really like it. But when
Speaker 1: that opportunity came and I was in Fiey the New
Speaker 1: York Fashion Week. Of course it was in New York,
Speaker 1: very close from here, so I got invited to that,
Speaker 1: to that show, and I was like, okay, let me,
Speaker 1: let me try. I'm going to do my best to
Speaker 1: describe what Netta was wearing a long, two button, single
Speaker 1: breasted suit jacket accented by a color fade of navy
Speaker 1: to white that went from top to bottom and around
Speaker 1: the sleeves as well. He also had on jet black
Speaker 1: pants and shiny black dress shoes. He was pretty fun,
Speaker 1: you know, because he was all athletes, so I got
Speaker 1: to know a lot of a lot of other athletes
Speaker 1: from other sports. He was something new for me. I
Speaker 1: haven't done anything, not even close so that. I've never
Speaker 1: even being watching a fashion show before. So it was
Speaker 1: a good experience. Well, Neda might be the only member
Speaker 1: of the seventy sixers who post runway chops. He has
Speaker 1: plenty of teammates who are fashion conscious. There's Tobias Harris.
Speaker 1: My style this year, I kind of step out the
Speaker 1: box a little bit in different areas and whatnot. Fashion
Speaker 1: is definitely key, is a way to expression itself. Josh
Speaker 1: richardson Basketball fashion user, I think it's all intertwined in
Speaker 1: my life. At least, just being for me and myself,
Speaker 1: I think is probably the biggest thing. Of course, Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons and even young batist Thible has gotten in the
Speaker 1: game a bit thanks to Harris providing the custom suit
Speaker 1: hook up. So Buys took me and Mario to like
Speaker 1: his designers store and we picked out like fabrics, We
Speaker 1: picked out every like I had no idea what I
Speaker 1: was doing. We're picking out all sorts of stuff, and
Speaker 1: it was cool. It was overwhelming. But then to like
Speaker 1: see the finished product and then put it on and
Speaker 1: then be able to like wear it on the court,
Speaker 1: like on the bench, and like show off and feeling
Speaker 1: us slick in my custom suit, it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Virtually every NBA player on every NBA team, there's some
Speaker 1: consideration given to game day fashion. I would say a
Speaker 1: hell of a lot of NBA players care what they
Speaker 1: look like when they're walking to the game or whether
Speaker 1: they're just like you know, shooting an Instagram photo. Basically,
Speaker 1: this again a sports Illustrated Senior editor Jamie Lasanti. When
Speaker 1: we put together our annual Fashionable fifty lists for Sports Illustrated,
Speaker 1: it's really hard not to make a full list of
Speaker 1: fifty NBA players. You could totally do it. We should
Speaker 1: probably do like a one off NBA only and now,
Speaker 1: of course the w NBA is coming in strong and
Speaker 1: they are killing it just as much, so we could
Speaker 1: definitely do a whole basketball only list, But there is
Speaker 1: no scientific we need to get the stats out there.
Speaker 1: There's definitely no scientific studies being done. But I would
Speaker 1: say that a ton of NBA players are interested in this,
Speaker 1: and the ones who aren't are definitely hearing it from
Speaker 1: their teammates. How much influence do basketball players wield in
Speaker 1: the fashion industry? Who wears what when can have the
Speaker 1: power to make or break brands. Over the years, it's
Speaker 1: become really interesting to see how much the two worlds
Speaker 1: have really converge. The fashion world is really interested in
Speaker 1: what athletes are doing, and they want them to be
Speaker 1: wearing their stuff, so they've changed their ways into to
Speaker 1: get these guys and these women wearing what they have
Speaker 1: out there. In other words, athlete fashion has become big business.
Speaker 1: This is des roon door set from the Sexers. You're
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of players now leverage the actual pregame
Speaker 1: walk in into larger partnership deals with some of these brands.
Speaker 1: Typically you would see star players having footwear sneaker deals,
Speaker 1: but now the most fashionable people in the NBA, whether
Speaker 1: they are self touted or you know, there's a consensus
Speaker 1: a lot of the players that have leverage to walk
Speaker 1: in have used that to sign larger fashioning based deals.
Speaker 1: Think if someone like Ben Simmons, for instance, if you
Speaker 1: see him in his cities before or after a game,
Speaker 1: he's probably got something in his ears. It's not a
Speaker 1: coincidence that those are Beats by Dre products. Here's Alex Supers.
Speaker 1: It's almost like its own little side business that's going on. Right.
Speaker 1: We're like, you know, if Ben might have a sponsor
Speaker 1: that he's got to be you know, rapping, whether maybe
Speaker 1: it's Beats, Like maybe Beats has new headphones or something.
Speaker 1: It's like, we need a picture of Ben wearing these
Speaker 1: new Beats headphones. Like walking in it is important business
Speaker 1: for these guys as well. It's very unique and I
Speaker 1: think that's a trend will see moving more to the
Speaker 1: norm versus the exception. Similar to the broader fashion world,
Speaker 1: there are plenty of stylistic subgenres supported by NBA players.
Speaker 1: Jamie Lasanti and our collaborators on the Sports Illustrated Fashionable
Speaker 1: fifty break the yearly list into categories like icons, trend setters,
Speaker 1: street style Stars, Classics, and rising Stars. There really is
Speaker 1: so many different avenues and ways that people express themselves.
Speaker 1: I think one of the most interesting ones that we've
Speaker 1: seen is what we've called in the past the difference makers.
Speaker 1: You know, so people who are really using their fashion
Speaker 1: and using what they wear to send a message. You've
Speaker 1: got the seeker guys, the accessory guys who are always
Speaker 1: wearing the hats and the watches and the jewelry. And
Speaker 1: then you've got the people who, you know, we kind
Speaker 1: of call them like the wild ones. They Russell Westbrooks
Speaker 1: and even like an Odell Beckham, who it really doesn't
Speaker 1: matter what day it is, you will not be able
Speaker 1: to guess what they're going to come out in, you know,
Speaker 1: because it could be anything from you know, wearing some
Speaker 1: really sharp suit and then the next day they come
Speaker 1: out and they're in a completely different look. When it
Speaker 1: comes to the seventy six ers, the consensus is that
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons probably gets the most widespread recognition for his game.
Speaker 1: Ben was an interesting one because he made our Fashionable
Speaker 1: fifty list pretty early on. You know, in his career,
Speaker 1: he quickly created his own personal brand of style. You know,
Speaker 1: he was always kind of creative and again sort of
Speaker 1: like a Russell Westbrook, always had that body type that
Speaker 1: was pretty easy for him to go out and get
Speaker 1: clothes from different designers or different people. Alex Subers, the
Speaker 1: seventy six ers photographer, has shot Simmons as much as anyone.
Speaker 1: Ben has a very clean style where he doesn't wear
Speaker 1: a lot of flashy or outrageous things. He keeps it
Speaker 1: very simple, like neutral tones, neutral colors, like it's very concise,
Speaker 1: it's very deliberate. He's definitely a little bit more on
Speaker 1: the kind of creative, cool, laid back kind of thing
Speaker 1: where he's he's really embracing both street style and then
Speaker 1: he'll also you know, you also see him wear a
Speaker 1: suit and a turtle nack or something like that. You know.
Speaker 1: So I think he's definitely has been one of the
Speaker 1: people to break out almost instantly as they arrived in
Speaker 1: the league. Even though Simmons is the lone sixer who
Speaker 1: layed the spot on the twenty nineteen SI Fashionable fifty,
Speaker 1: Losanti says, the gap between him and some of his
Speaker 1: teammates isn't that wide. I think Tobias is definitely someone
Speaker 1: who we can keep an eye out. You know, we
Speaker 1: always have a rising Stars category on our list, so
Speaker 1: perhaps he can be in the running there. But he
Speaker 1: certainly wants to be noticed and he certainly is taking
Speaker 1: some risks seeing him wear some crazy things, whether it's
Speaker 1: striped pants here and there or whatever. And he again
Speaker 1: has a different body type. So I think that's what
Speaker 1: makes it really fun and interesting is seeing how these guys,
Speaker 1: you know, adapt their personal style to what you know,
Speaker 1: what they have and what their body type is. So
Speaker 1: he's definitely one to watch. We'll see, we'll see how
Speaker 1: things shake out. Josh Richardson's efforts haven't gone unoticed either.
Speaker 1: He's one who is more of a risk taker, and
Speaker 1: he's definitely also just kind of laid back and cool.
Speaker 1: He's rocking the flannels and you know, plaids and lots
Speaker 1: of as leisure, which is great. And I think he's
Speaker 1: also really into his sneakers and you can't sleep on
Speaker 1: the big Man's low key stylings. Alex Supers weighs in.
Speaker 1: You get the Joel where like Joel is dressing up
Speaker 1: for the game, like he's wearing some some high end
Speaker 1: designer stuff and he's say, he goes pretty flashy, like
Speaker 1: he doesn't do it much. But when Joel dresses up
Speaker 1: for a game, like he goes to the top. When
Speaker 1: Joe goes for it, he goes for it. Taken on
Speaker 1: the whole, the Sixers roster reflects a range of fashion
Speaker 1: as diverses the men who wear the franchise his signature red,
Speaker 1: white and blue colors. I'll get texts from guys that
Speaker 1: like we'll say like yo, I can't see the walk
Speaker 1: in pick or something, just because like they I don't know.
Speaker 1: They want to see it. They want to see what
Speaker 1: the outfit looks like. They want to know what kind
Speaker 1: of photos they might have or after the game to
Speaker 1: be posting and look, they love it. Back in the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, of course, there were no cell phones or
Speaker 1: social media platforms that now give celebrity athletes and everyday
Speaker 1: people like the power to express themselves to anyone anytime
Speaker 1: anywhere had color photography wasn't even really mainstream yet, So
Speaker 1: imagine for a moment the type of engagement that Will
Speaker 1: chamberlain walking content would have gotten if the technology of
Speaker 1: his era were on par with today's standards. A Bleacher
Speaker 1: Report article from April twenty seventeen sighted Chamberlain is one
Speaker 1: of the players most responsible for bringing the style to
Speaker 1: the NBA that was emblematic of and fresh for that period.
Speaker 1: Around the same time that Wilt was racking up historic
Speaker 1: feat after historic feat, a young man with pro potential
Speaker 1: was coming of age in Brooklyn. Lloyd Bernard Free loved
Speaker 1: the New York Picks, and in particular one of Chamberlain's
Speaker 1: chief rivals, Walt Clyde Fraser, whose bold, outlandish outfits were
Speaker 1: and still to this day remain the stuff of legend.
Speaker 1: Essentially tailored for one man and one man old even
Speaker 1: though he's older, what he you know, he always came out,
Speaker 1: he was clean, always at the game. Well, Fraser's style
Speaker 1: was like you know, he was, he was king, and
Speaker 1: he came out and did his thing kind of like
Speaker 1: you know, try to piggy back golf dad a little
Speaker 1: bit to seeing how he was dressed. After starting at
Speaker 1: Guldford College, World he Free went on to become a
Speaker 1: second round pick in the Sixers. On the floor, he
Speaker 1: was known for his potent scoring and smooth arcing jump shot.
Speaker 1: He wants to average thirty points per game and earned
Speaker 1: an All Star nine in nineteen eighty. These days, anyone
Speaker 1: familiar with World be Free probably recognizes him for his creative,
Speaker 1: colorful suits as much as anything else. He estimates his
Speaker 1: suit collection tops three hundred. But the thing is, you know,
Speaker 1: if they could talk, they had, they would have something.
Speaker 1: They have a lot to say as suits, you know,
Speaker 1: because every I guess, every time I you know, I
Speaker 1: try to match up, try to make sure the shoes,
Speaker 1: the shirt to tie. You know, everything's coordinated. You know,
Speaker 1: you got to coordinate and coordinate you get it right,
Speaker 1: you know. So that's how I like to always do it.
Speaker 1: World B. Free is distinct, that much is for certain.
Speaker 1: Between his playing days and his two and a half
Speaker 1: decades as the Sixers ambassador of basketball, Free is kept
Speaker 1: company with some of the most fashioned forward Sixers. He
Speaker 1: was a team mate of the always staffer Julia Servant.
Speaker 1: Some of Julie's style is a businessman Do's a guy
Speaker 1: that when you look at him and say, all right,
Speaker 1: that's a clean cut man, you know, does his thing
Speaker 1: sometimes like his wife dressed him, so you know, but
Speaker 1: for most of the time there's a different style for me,
Speaker 1: because I guess we're from different places anyway. But his
Speaker 1: style is is more more more business like. He just
Speaker 1: he just looked nice in his stough. Decades later, when
Speaker 1: world fe was retired, he returned to the Sixers in
Speaker 1: his current front office role, and he had a front
Speaker 1: row seat to watch a six foot guard from Georgetown.
Speaker 1: He become an international fashion figure. Alan changed up a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff, you know, Alan, When I remember him
Speaker 1: with Larry Brown, he'd gold Larry Brown to half of
Speaker 1: fifty more gray hairs. And he remember him coming into
Speaker 1: the building when he his rookie year had his pants
Speaker 1: always down, you know, below his butt, you know, and
Speaker 1: and his hood the hoodie on and everything and a
Speaker 1: do rag, you know, and you're coming into practice. I
Speaker 1: remember somebody was simple. It was somebody on the team
Speaker 1: at that time was saying where you know that stuff? Alan?
Speaker 1: And I was Allen and gout On is working more
Speaker 1: than somebody's caught, you know what? I mean, it's different,
Speaker 1: it's a different trend, but that's expensive stuff he got
Speaker 1: on there, you know, so and and Allen was letting
Speaker 1: a way not tell him what to do. I mean,
Speaker 1: if I was a young feller at that time, I
Speaker 1: would have liked that. You know, that was something that
Speaker 1: I could I could have done. And that's precisely what
Speaker 1: a countless number of people did, not just in the
Speaker 1: Delaware Valley, but around the world. Iverson's style of play
Speaker 1: made him an NBA favor. He's often referred to as
Speaker 1: the toughest player pound for pound in league history. But
Speaker 1: without his image, Iverson might not have ever ascended to
Speaker 1: become one of the most transcendent global superstars in the
Speaker 1: history of professional sports. To have an image, you've got
Speaker 1: to have style, and I was all his own before Instagram,
Speaker 1: before designer brands were even thinking about dressing these guys,
Speaker 1: before we had skinny suits. There was a NBA era
Speaker 1: before with guys like Iverson, who you know, really left
Speaker 1: their mark on basketball and just style in general. Iverson's
Speaker 1: style was almost more like a movement. In an article
Speaker 1: published on the website hype Beast in twenty sixteen, Iverson
Speaker 1: was described as the NBA's unapologetic streetwear hero and lauded
Speaker 1: for bringing hip hop front center for basketball fans. Sports
Speaker 1: Illustrated Senior editor Jamie Lasanti, a lot of people were
Speaker 1: mimicking his style and it really became part of the culture,
Speaker 1: and it really speaks to how you know, music and
Speaker 1: sports and fashion really all connect. And he of course
Speaker 1: had a personal brand of style on his own, and
Speaker 1: he was an icon on the court, and he definitely
Speaker 1: is someone that can be tagged as starting this conversation
Speaker 1: about fashion and MBA. We good. Oh, you know, I
Speaker 1: just felt like I was influencing guys that wanted to
Speaker 1: just be themselves. Nothing bad about it, no will will
Speaker 1: intentions or nothing like that. You know. It was just
Speaker 1: guys wanted to dress like they wanted to address. Iverson
Speaker 1: was the unquestionable face of streetwear. Growing up in the
Speaker 1: Hampton Roads region of Coastal Virginia, he always dreamed of
Speaker 1: having his own shoe. He got it, of course, from
Speaker 1: Rebuked for as different, unique, and refreshingly brash as Iverson's
Speaker 1: style was, it was also real and authentic and he
Speaker 1: had no intentions of changing. Not the answer, not even
Speaker 1: after then Commissioner David Stern implemented a dress code two
Speaker 1: thousand and five that came to benown as the Iverson rule.
Speaker 1: I know is that the Union said it was a
Speaker 1: good thing to do. I did it, and then they
Speaker 1: attacked me on it. And the dress code was you
Speaker 1: could wear jeans, just wear a pair of shoes and
Speaker 1: a shirt with a collar. But our players went over
Speaker 1: the top. Frankly, they got these great bodies and they
Speaker 1: just began to be on Gentleman's Quarterly and Vogue and
Speaker 1: a little kinds of fancy places. And then they took
Speaker 1: it to the next level. They started designing their own
Speaker 1: fashion lines. I think it's great that moment in the NBA.
Speaker 1: It was really important because it did give the players
Speaker 1: the ability to start expressing themselves. It kind of helped
Speaker 1: them understand that fashion was something that was important to
Speaker 1: them and they didn't want to be told, you know,
Speaker 1: how to dress. When we plot this NBA fashion twenty
Speaker 1: years from now, I think at that point in two
Speaker 1: thousand five will be a big one on the timeline.
Speaker 1: A decade and a half later, the og himself has
Speaker 1: been keeping tabs on the evolution of the revolution. He
Speaker 1: ushered it. I love it. I love everybody having their
Speaker 1: own originality, everybody getting themselves. You know, that's what it
Speaker 1: was about. Everybody don't play the same basketball game, so
Speaker 1: why would everybody address the same you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I love what guys are doing, you know, to each
Speaker 1: his own and I think it's dope, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. As far as them taking it far and beyond.
Speaker 1: Fashion is an intrinsic part of the seventy Sixers history.
Speaker 1: It's one of the reasons why the organization is focusing
Speaker 1: on fashion for its latest installment and it's seventy Sixers
Speaker 1: Crossover series. The initiative agan last fall with a highly
Speaker 1: successful seventy Sixers Crossover art exhibition, The seventy Sixers Crossover
Speaker 1: Who was designed to celebrate what we got the seventy
Speaker 1: Sixers think make the city of Philadelphia unique. Des ro
Speaker 1: Indoor set the Sixers vice president of business Development, and
Speaker 1: that's with a focus on lifestyle, lifestyle to us income,
Speaker 1: to sys these four major parts. That's art, fashion, food,
Speaker 1: and music. That's the culture that we like to think
Speaker 1: that the MBA has a larger platform seamlessly integrates into
Speaker 1: and we're in the perfect city Philadelphia that really has
Speaker 1: a stronghold on each of those four pieces of lifestyle,
Speaker 1: and we're here as a major brand in the city
Speaker 1: to celebrate it. The Sixers formally rolled out There's seventy
Speaker 1: Sixers Crossover Capsule collection project this week, featuring exclusive streetwear
Speaker 1: brands like Eric Emmanuel, New Era, New York, Sunshine, Ever Styles,
Speaker 1: Look Studios, and black Stock and Webber. Since the beginning
Speaker 1: of basketball, uniqueness has been part of what players wanted
Speaker 1: to display by what they have on and that's something
Speaker 1: that we're going to see celebrated through this a capsule
Speaker 1: that we have now, and then we'll tell more and
Speaker 1: more fashion stories because fashion is such an integral part
Speaker 1: of what the MBA players love to celebrate. If you're
Speaker 1: listening to this podcast before Saturday, August first, good Luck.
Speaker 1: The merch drops exclusively on the website for Lapstone and Hammer,
Speaker 1: a premiere of Philadelphia lifestyle brand specializing in premium sportswear
Speaker 1: at ten am Eastern. As part of the seventy Sixer's
Speaker 1: Crossover Capsule, Alan Iverson and Matisse Thible helped model some
Speaker 1: of the apparel. Not only did Thible service the subject
Speaker 1: for a few pictures they dropped on social media. The
Speaker 1: talented rookie content machine also took a few photos himself
Speaker 1: on an old fashioned film camera. The sixers original hope
Speaker 1: was to create a physical space in Center City, like
Speaker 1: a pop up to display the capsule in the spring,
Speaker 1: but as we know way too well, the world had
Speaker 1: different plans. When we were looking at building a capsule
Speaker 1: around fashion, it was going to be based on sort
Speaker 1: of a spring sort of collection. So that's not T shirts,
Speaker 1: that's not shorts, that's straight up sweaters, hoodies and stuff
Speaker 1: that you would wear during the NBA season. With this
Speaker 1: pivot and COVID nineteen, we took a shift to celebrate
Speaker 1: playing basketball in the summer. We have a campaign here
Speaker 1: Summer seven six and it's really unique for us trying
Speaker 1: to celebrate the NBA in the summertime. So we view
Speaker 1: this as a return to play, So we're trying to
Speaker 1: bring some energy into seventy six ers basketball coming back.
Speaker 1: Proceeds from the seventy six Ers Crossover Capsule will benefit
Speaker 1: the Urban Affairs Coalition. They are a group that we
Speaker 1: actually recently did a college and career readiness platform and
Speaker 1: program with with a lot of our staff members and
Speaker 1: coming out of that, it was important for us to
Speaker 1: continue that work because I think it was great for
Speaker 1: us to share some knowledge, but how can we share
Speaker 1: some resources? So when we look at the crossover and
Speaker 1: we hope that this will be the baseline move forward
Speaker 1: if they're there's any sort of proceeds to be made
Speaker 1: while celebrating what makes Philadelphia great as it relates the lifestyle,
Speaker 1: we'll try to identify some of our partners, the UAC
Speaker 1: in this case, to be a beneficiary of the unveiling
Speaker 1: of the seventy Sixers Crossover fashion capsule, of course, comes
Speaker 1: at a compelling time over a thousand miles away. The
Speaker 1: Sixers are one of twenty two teams bubbled inside the
Speaker 1: Walt Disney World Resort, hopeful to help the NBA pull
Speaker 1: off a restart that four months ago seemed like it
Speaker 1: would have been improbable. And for two different but very
Speaker 1: important reasons. What players are wearing is a topic of conversation.
Speaker 1: On one front, players can replace the names on the
Speaker 1: back of their jerseys with words and phrases that promotes
Speaker 1: social justice. This is part of a joint effort between
Speaker 1: the league and the Players Association to recognize that black
Speaker 1: lives matter and rally around the fight against systemic racism.
Speaker 1: The other reason why what people are wearing is a
Speaker 1: story in the Magic Kingdom is because of the comprehensive
Speaker 1: safety measures being implemented to protect the NBA's Orlando campus
Speaker 1: from the spread of COVID. Nineteen players, along with coaches
Speaker 1: and other staff, have been given titanium rings designed to
Speaker 1: detect subtle variances and body functioning such as heart rate, breathing,
Speaker 1: and temperatures that could be linked to the coronavirus. Disney
Speaker 1: World Magic wristbands have been distributed to limit wear and
Speaker 1: how many times you have to touch things with your
Speaker 1: hands like room keys and masks are obviously a must
Speaker 1: just about everywhere, with the exception of select Encourt personnel.
Speaker 1: Given the circumstances surrounding the NBA's or Turned to play
Speaker 1: and the heat and humidity customary to Central Florida this
Speaker 1: time of year, the league's famed dress code is also
Speaker 1: getting a few tweaks. Instead of having to wear sports
Speaker 1: coats and suits on the sidelines, players and coaches can
Speaker 1: now go with short or long sleeve polos, and with
Speaker 1: this being in the middle of the summer, the fashioned
Speaker 1: vibes are naturally a little more laid back, because after all,
Speaker 1: it's summer. Here's Alex Supers. I'm wondering how many full
Speaker 1: outfits the guys packed, how many like fits they packed,
Speaker 1: And with the media footprint scaled back inside the bubble
Speaker 1: compared to what it normally would be for the NBA player,
Speaker 1: fashion content figures to be different too. I think the
Speaker 1: times that we might see people in the bubble dressed
Speaker 1: up is that if they're sitting out a game, or
Speaker 1: if they're they're injured or something like that, then you know,
Speaker 1: then they'll be wearing some outfits from when they're on
Speaker 1: the bench. Just with the limited media, they're limited press like,
Speaker 1: I also just think these guys might start on how
Speaker 1: the outfits. I don't know how much steady packed. I
Speaker 1: think it might be a lot of shorts, it might
Speaker 1: be a lot of sweatpants, hoodies. It's gonna be interesting.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see kind of how that plays out. Jamielisanti,
Speaker 1: I think the bubble is going to create a different
Speaker 1: wave of fashion them and we've typically seen. I think
Speaker 1: we're going to see a little more laid back, a
Speaker 1: little bit more of players using their bodies basically to
Speaker 1: send out messaging when in terms of T shirts or
Speaker 1: you know, really anything. Because it's a strange season, I
Speaker 1: think they still have an opportunity to show their fashion,
Speaker 1: but at this point they're playing in a pandemic, So
Speaker 1: I think we're going to see a very laid back
Speaker 1: but also probably a very powerful season of NBA fashion
Speaker 1: in this bubble in Orlando. Yes, the rules these days
Speaker 1: may have changed, but one thing remains the same. NBA
Speaker 1: fashion is a compelling story worth file. That'll do it
Speaker 1: for this episode of Here They Come. I want to
Speaker 1: thank you everyone involved in producing it, starting with Chris Unera,
Speaker 1: also Lauren Rosen, Maggie Zerbe, Alex Subers, and Abby Cook.
Speaker 1: Music for this episode of Here They Come is courtesy
Speaker 1: of Universal Production Music and the YouTube Audio Library. My
Speaker 1: name is Brian Seltzer. Thanks so much for listenings.