Fashion and streetwear both have a lot of roots in athletics.
Many modern fashion designs use sports brands and shoes going as far back as the 70s. Adidas and Nike are two of the most notable sports brands that have affected the fashion industry the longest and the strongest.
Nike itself has had innumerable amounts of fashion collaborations. From Dior to Comme des Garcons, to working with fine artists such as Kaws and Rick Owens, Nike has set a standard for bringing athletic wear to everyone across the world of fashion and art. Many different classes of people who only wore designer dress clothes and dress shoes 40 years ago can now walk around in athletic shoes without the tabloids discussing it in a negative light or putting a spin on it. Now tabloids are constantly upselling the sportswear brands as the in look.
Professional athletes are making more and more money since this trend helped to set that standard as fashionable and fashion forward. Players like Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Dennis Rodman all changed how fashion and athletes were seen in correlation with one another. Michael Jordan in particular changed the game in every sense of the phrase. From revolutionizing basketball into a whole new era of greatness, to changing the sneaker game by getting his own shoe line running with Air Jordans, which became “THE” icon of streetwear and fashion. Jordans (the shoes) flipped the fashion world on its head, altering sneaker culture’s course.
Other shoe and athletic brands followed suit, with Reebok and Converse also having collaborations with athletes, fashion, and icons. Some 40 years later, we’re seeing more collaborations between athletes every month or so. Every player whose name is synonymous with a sport has a shoe or a line of shoes for each notable season they play. We’re also at a point where these athletes and their fashion lines collaborate frequently with other companies.
Sportswear was directly influenced by sports culture as entertainment was growing in the 70s and 80s and then later ballooning into a media craze with “legends” and “GOATS” coming out as a push from professional leagues’ media presence. Those athletes wore the gear and then the gear became the look for fans until that too ballooned beyond its original purpose into a fashion statement beyond sports fans.