The rise of social media has led to “tunnel fits” becoming a huge aspect of a player’s pregame routine. While most players stay on the beaten path and don’t experiment with their choice of clothes, a few have taken the leap into high fashion and wowed fans with their outfit choices. Lakers’ defensive ace Jarred Vanderbilt is a sharp dresser, but he recently credited Russell Westbrook as one of his biggest inspirations.
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Vanderbilt appeared on former teammate D’Angelo Russell’s Backyard Podcast to do a bit of shopping in downtown LA. He revealed his fashion icons and spoke about how Allen Iverson and Dennis Rodman influenced people’s views on what kinds of clothes athletes can wear.
“They [AI and Rodman] kinda changed the view of fashion, especially in sports. They kinda bridged the gap.”
He went on to give props to Russ for being one of the first modern-day players to bridge the gap between athletes and high fashion.
“And even guys like Russ, I feel like he was the first one to kinda bridge the gap between fashion and especially high fashion and like sports. He was one of the first like NBA-wise to incorporate that stuff.”
Of course, Vanderbilt knows all about tunnel fits. He’s one of the sharpest-dressed players in the NBA, and his wide assortment of looks have consistently wowed even the harshest of critics. Instagram page @leaguefits displays Vando’s style to their 1 million followers as often as they can.
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For Vanderbilt, fashion is another way to express himself and his personality. This steady transition from clothes being just clothes to being a method for a player to express himself has been important for the league. Vanderbilt attributes this to people’s interest in fashion shows.
How does Jarred Vanderbilt pick his game day fits?
Contrary to popular belief, Vando claimed most of the outfits he wears on game day are decided 12 hours before the game.
“For me like, most of my game fits, they come on game day.”
Talking to one of the reps at the store where he was shopping, Vanderbilt explained his process of picking out his outfit for the tunnel:
“I kinda just go with what I’m feeling. Depending on the weather, it’s cold, hot, I kinda factor that in, but it’s been on what I’m feeling. If it’s a TV game, and I really gotta put some on, then imma turn it up a little bit.”
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Having played for 3 teams before he reached LA, Vanderbilt spoke about how the number of televised games has gone up, causing him to rethink his style. He added,
“TV games, when we was in Minnesota we probably had like 5? Here we got damn near half, like 40 games on TV. You know it’s a different way you gotta present when you’re on TV. And it’s LA—you can dress a little different here.”
A player’s fashion sense is his first impression on the viewers, and it’s pretty easy to see why Jarred Vanderbilt puts so much importance on how he dresses.
