Is Basketball Fashion's New Favorite Sport?
After years of soccer dominating the cultural and sartorial landscape, basketball seems to be emerging as the sport’s biggest competitor for the industry’s attention.
Think of the most fashionable sport in the world right now. It’s soccer, isn’t it? The beautiful game has been a catalyst for some of fashion’s biggest trends and moments over the last few years, experiencing a sudden resurgence in the mainstream wardrobe just before the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Since then, the sport has been inescapable on the fashion front, but that dominance in our sartorial culture could be waning.
It started with blokecore. A few people on TikTok in the United Kingdom began sharing looks inspired by football hooliganism, pairing retro jerseys with adidas Sambas, Gazelles and Spezials. The hooli-chic trend erupted almost immediately, running its way through Europe, Africa, Asia and, eventually, soccer’s no man’s land – the United States.
The effects of blokecore still color our wardrobes today. Sambas and other slim silhouettes that British football casuals made popular in the ’70s and ’80s still dominate the footwear space. Foldover tongues and subtly-cleated sneakers mimic boots, and if you walk through a major city, you’re likely to see someone that’s never heard of Aston Villa or AS Roma wearing a jersey.
While blokecore brought the beautiful game to the world, particularly the States, it seems it’s America’s turn to share one of its greatest sporting exports with the fashion scene.
Fresh off of a Knicks Championship in New York City that had the world wearing blue and orange, basketball is slowly emerging as one of the biggest contenders to challenge soccer’s fashionable throne. If you believe in trickle-down fashion and look to the runways for inspiration to get ahead of the trend cycle, there is an obvious shift in focus from the footy-dominated catwalks we saw a few years ago.
Despite the 2026 World Cup buzz, brands are going all in on basketball. Willy Chavarria, other than a soccer-heavy Fall/Winter 2026 collection, has always incorporated basketball into his sportier designs, with long mesh shorts, elevated jerseys and an NBA All-Star Weekend adidas collaboration earlier this year.
Balenciaga unveiled its first collaboration with the NBA, much to most people’s surprise. Though it’s the brand of choice for many an athlete, Balenciaga and basketball don’t necessarily come up in the same sentence very often. Popping up in Chicago Bulls colors and oversized shorts, Pierpaolo Piccioli and Balenciaga leaning into the league was perhaps the biggest wake-up call.
More recently, Jonathan Anderson’s Dior launched its own spin on a hardwood classic. Straying away from the obvious nods to the sport in mesh, longline shorts, reworked jerseys and bomber jackets, Anderson went back in time to redesign a founding element of the sport: the basketball sneaker.
Launching the Hooper Trainer, Dior’s take on basketball is a classic, ’80s-inspired sneaker reminiscent of the days of Larry Bird and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Changing the way brands can look at basketball and transform the sport to fit their design language, Anderson’s understated remodeling of basketball could be the first domino to fall in a similar way to blokecore’s vintage tracksuits and jerseys.
Looking away from the brands, the athletes themselves have become fashion’s favorite ambassadors. Victor Wembanyama never misses a Louis Vuitton show, and Bayou Barbie Angel Reese has quickly become one of the most marketable athletes in fashion and beauty.
The things that soccer lacks – tunnel walks and the creative freedom granted to players in the NBA and WNBA – basketball has taken full advantage of. Expressing their creativity and personal style has turned players like Hailey Van Lith, Natasha Cloud and Paige Bueckers into fashion inspirations and spokespersons for your favorite brands.
Reese has now attended three Met Galas, even releasing an Angel Reese 1 with Reebok inspired by the first dress she wore to fashion’s biggest night. Her appearance at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show last year had already solidified her status as one of the most fashionable athletes in the world, but as she continues to find herself front row at Fashion Week and on the biggest red carpets, it has become clear that Reese and her influence are one-of-one.
Following the World Cup, some people in the United States are excited to explore their newfound love of soccer, but that’s not the case for everyone. A certain amount of “World Cup fatigue” is expected, after months of buildup and endless soccer that the country’s general population had never encountered before.
This is where basketball steps in, with its familiarity and comfort. Basketball has always been fashionable, but with an expected shift in focus from the beautiful game to the court, we could experience an influx of hardwood-inspired looks over the next year and beyond.
It has already started with basketball shorts being all over your social media feed this summer, but after the historic Knicks win and growing global fanbases in the WNBA and NBA, “hoopscore” might just be TikTok’s new obsession in 2026.
