the joy of the NBA tunnel fit
and a primer on what it took to get there
The first basketball game I ever watched in full was during March Madness in 2019. The reason for my sudden interest was a bracket challenge that the CEO at my previous job had initiated—on the line was a $250 flight voucher. I’d never been a sports person, but I am unfortunately someone who loves to win, and I spent several hours poring over available stats and data to finalize my choices. At first I was watching solely to track my movement in the rankings, but I was quickly drawn into the game itself. (In case you’re wondering, I won.)
Basketball became another way for me to bond with both my coworkers and my students. (I still know of no better way to gain control of a group of fifth grade boys than to gently rib one of them for their favorite player’s poor performance in a game the night before.) I also found out that my favorite sneaker, the Nike Blazer, originated as a basketball shoe. But there was another major intersection of sports and fashion that revealed itself to me after I became a basketball lover—the Tunnel Fit.
For those unfamiliar with the concept of the tunnel fit, it’s the outfit a basketball player is photographed in while walking through the tunnel from the arena entrance to the locker room. (I’m expanding the literal definition slightly within this post to encompass the outfits that players wear to official events, like draft night.)
Before 2005, basketball players were allowed to show up to games or events wearing pretty much whatever they wanted. And they did! Dennis Rodman, who deserves a post all to himself, showed up in cheetah print and pearls as often as he did in pajama pants. Michael Jordan rotated between baggy jeans and tucked-in t-shirts, matching coordinated sets, and baggy suits paired with mock turtlenecks. Patrick Ewing randomly showed up in an ankle-length leather jacket.
In 2005, the NBA commissioner at the time, David Stern, instituted a dress code for all NBA players, to be adhered to not only at games but all NBA-affiliated events. On the list of banned clothes were “baggy shorts, t-shirts, jerseys, trainers, flip-flops, and do-rags,” as well as any “chains, pendants, and medallions worn outside clothes.” Sunglasses and headphones were also banned indoors. Players were expected to wear ‘business casual’ clothing, largely interpreted as a sports coat, slacks and dress shoes.
Players who violated the dress code could expect to be fined (which is unsurprising, as the NBA frequently hits players with fines in the tens of thousands for the smallest of infractions, some of which are actually very funny, like Jimmy Butler’s $15,000 fine for celebrating a teammate’s basket with a “hip thrust” and the Heat’s subsequent fine for posting it on their social media.) There was also the threat of being thrown out of the league as a potential consequence for repeat offenders.
While there was no specific incident cited as the reason for adopting a dress code, it was introduced less than a year after the infamous “Malice at the Palace,” an on-court brawl that ended in a confrontation between players and fans. To many players (and many fans), the dress code felt like a pointed attack on some of the high-profile stars at the time, like Allen Iverson, who was already seen by many as a style icon in his own right. Iverson routinely showed up to games and events in sweatsuits with an exaggerated, oversize fit, a sweatband or a baseball cap angled slightly to the side, Timberlands, and multiple chains in layers of gold and silver hanging triumphantly from his neck.
The new dress code was an unspoken reminder of who ultimately held the control and power within the organization (white men), and how they saw the predominantly Black players who made up the NBA.
(David Stern reportedly said later that it was Steve Nash and not Allen Iverson who prompted the dress code, but… well, believe what you want to believe.)
The evolution from strict dress code to “tunnel fit” culture was uneven, and it didn’t happen overnight. David Stern left in 2014 and was replaced by Adam Silver, who is still the commissioner today. Silver has a mixed track record of responses to the (frequent) intersection of race and basketball—he permanently banned the owner of the L.A. Clippers, Donald Sterling, from the NBA after a recording surfaced in 2014 of Sterling making indisputably racist remarks, but was equivocating at best in his response when players broke dress code later that year by wearing “I can’t breathe” shirts during warmups in support of Eric Garner’s family. He was still an improvement over Stern in that regard, however, and following the creation of the NBA Bubble in 2020, much of that 2005 dress code (which had by then long gone unenforced) was officially relaxed.
The first players whose tunnel fits I remember clocking were Russell Westbrook and James Harden when they were teammates on the Houston Rockets during the 2019-20 season. Russell Westbrook’s cheekbones lent themselves well to any high-fashion look, and James Harden, cheekbones (prominent or unremarkable) obscured under his magnificent beard, was just flying his freak flag and loving it.
Soon I was poring over all the various NBA social media accounts and the LeagueFits Instagram to see what the standout players at the time were wearing: Jimmy Butler, Steph Curry, LeBron James, Ben Simmons… the list goes on.
Allen Iverson himself has had mixed reactions to the shift in enforcement and relaxing of the dress code. As a player whose self-expression was swiftly curtailed by its inception, it’s understandable to see how he might feel bitter. But in general, what began as an attempt to enforce the strictures of “professional” dress has generated some of the most iconic and inventively styled athletes we have today.
In their current form, tunnel fits are a vehicle for players to showcase their personality, humor, and joy. They are also a way for players to go all out, and they do! There are no “safe” looks, no two men wearing the same navy suit and staid tie. Some veteran players go for the knowingly self-referential (LeBron in his white suit at the beginning of the 2022-23 season, an obvious but more tailored nod to his initial draft day suit from 2003).
Newer players tend to use their tunnel fits as a sartorial signal for shaping their narrative and how they want to be perceived off-court. Victor Wembanyama, the 20-year-old from France who went to the San Antonio Spurs as first draft pick this past fall, partnered with Louis Vuitton long before draft night.
The French phenom […] sported a green Louis Vuitton suit in an apparent nod to LeBron James referring to him as an "alien.""The color green, it looks kinda outer space, you know... alien-like. Green's a color I really like," Wembanyama said of his draft outfit, according to Jake Fenner of The Daily Mail. - Bleacher Report
And some players are just sheer brilliance and bravado—I screamed when I saw Bruce Brown Jr.’s “I’m all in” look this opening season. This man went for the pro basketball player equivalent of rooting through the closet an hour before the western-themed party and PULLED IT OFF.
(Okay, Bruce Brown deserves a little more credit for how much he committed to the bit—please look at this sampling of outfits from the 2023-24 season before his trade to the Raptors.)
Of course, many of these players have stylists, custom-made clothing (nobody is making off-the-rack pants long enough for Victor Wembanyama), and partnerships and endorsement deals with luxury fashion houses (even Bruce Brown has a deal with Stetson), but a lot of tunnel fits honestly give more of a “My stylist begged me not to wear this!” vibe, which makes me love them even more. Like, everyone in Tyler Herro’s life (including Stan Van Gundy) must have told him multiple times by now, “Dude, you gotta stop with the bucket hats.” And he just won’t stop!
But what I really love about the tunnel fit, and about NBA style in general, is how unabashedly not timeless it feels. Every outfit in basketball history, from Michael Jordan’s beret to Russell Westbrook’s skinny jeans, is in conversation with the cultural moment happening around it—intentionally or not. And I appreciate the care, creativity, and vulnerability that goes into every tunnel fit so much more than any outfit composed of beautifully understated, inoffensive, “timeless” basics.
<3 E
Okay sorry please let me know if you like the basketball content I know this is different from the usual!!! But if you did like it… stay tuned for a copy+paste on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, the man named the NBA’s most stylish player several years in a row! We may or may not attempt to replicate this tunnel fit!!
P.S. I also highly recommend by Katie Heindl and by Tom Ziller for further basketball reading.
P.P.S. If anyone has Nets or Knicks season tickets they’re not using… you know who to call!
SOURCES THAT WEREN’T ALREADY LINKED
How Next-gen NBA Players are Rewriting the Rules of Athlete Style (High Snobiety)
How David Stern’s NBA Dress Code Changed Men’s Fashion (Rolling Stone)
Allen Iverson: The Driving Force Behind the NBA’s Style Revolution (One Block Down)
It’s Gotta Be the Clothes: Linking James Harden’s Wild Tunnel Outfits to His Stellar Play (Complex)
The Best NBA Tunnel Outfits of the Season (So Far) (Complex)
How the NBA Turned the Tunnel Into a Major Fashion Runway (Town & Country)
“Everybody’s Dressed Up Like They’re Going to Sunday School”: Allen Iverson Reveals Reasons Behind His Iconic Styling (Essentially Sports)
The NBA’s New Relaxed Dress Code Kisses the Suit Goodbye (GQ)
Why Allen Iverson’s Style Influence Starts With His Braids (GQ)
@LeagueFits Is the Instagram Account Putting Basketball Fashion Into the Spotlight
The best and worst looks from the NBA openers' concrete catwalks, where sports and fashion meet (Business Insider)
Fashion in the NBA (College Writing 195)
NBA's 'no bling' dress code prompts racism accusations (The Guardian)
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the 4 most stylish NBA players, ranked (ClutchPoints)
PLEASE make Tunnel Fits a recurring post!!!!!!!!! <33333
I love a good tunnel fit! We love this and need a series. My next post is about golf fits, so this is my jam!