Top NBA Prospects Sharife Cooper, Davion Mitchell And Cade Cunningham Visit Neiman Marcus For Fittings

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Sharife Cooper

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES — The 2021 NBA Draft takes place tonight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn at 8 ET. You can watch the draft on ABC/ESPN/ESPN+.

Basketball and fashion goes hand-in-hand. The NBA and fashion industry are connected. The arenas are the runways and players are the new style icons, models.

Of course fans care about players performance on the court, but they also want to buy in their brands off the court.

Whether it’s a Louis Vuitton jacket, Thom Browne suit, Beats headphones, or Balenciaga sneakers, fans want to know what players are wearing, and they want to wear it, too.

Small beginnings—outfit choices, really—can lead to large-endorsement deals with luxury houses, sneaker companies and mega brands.

We’re seeing athletes driving more and more value for the brands they work with. Athletes have really developed a love of fashion. They’re sitting front row at fashion shows, appearing in fashion magazines and on websites, working on their own collaborations outside of basketball. The walk into the arena has now become their runway.

Basketball’s fashion isn’t exactly new. WaltClydeFrazier, Wilt Chamberlain, Allen Iverson, and Magic Johnson all cared about what they wore.

In 2005, NBA commissioner David Stern passed a rule that required business casual dress for team- and game-related events, including that walk into the arena. Once the dress code went into effect, more players started to focus on fashion.

The players took this rule, which was made as a form of control, and made it into something that became an avenue to drive style and culture,” says Beats’ president Luke Wood. “Style is this gateway for them to really start thinking about who they are outside of basketball.”

Most basketball players, upon entering the league, have already grown their online presence on social media and built their brands. On Instagram, people can post and control the content themselves. No one knows what you wore if there was no one to take a photo of it. The most important thing is getting the right exposure. You can do as much as you want, wear any stylish look you want, but if no one is seeing it then it does not amount to nothing. You need to work with platforms that expose it.

Tonight, some draft prospects will arrive to the Barclays in two-tone suits, bold color suits, dark suits, double breasted jackets, blazers, button-up shirt, ties, slacks and more.

In prepare for tonight’s draft, luxury retailer Neiman Marcus has partnered with top NBA prospect Sharife Cooper, Davion Mitchell, and Cade Cunningham to choose outfits for the big event.

The images give you a behind the scene look at the players getting fitted, picking out outfits and trying on clothes.

Congrats to all the draft prospects and much success in your future endeavors.

Davion Mitchell

Cade Cunningham

Photos Credit: Instagram Reproduction

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Donovan

Donovan is the CEO and Editor-In-Chief of www.dmfashionbook.com. For all general inquiries please email don@dmfashionbook.com Donovan has a BA in Journalism & Media Studies from the prestigious Rutgers University. He's currently studying entertainment and fashion law.