As we enter the most high-traffic shopping time of the year, the opportunity to support minority and emerging designers becomes that much more important. No one knows that better than basketball star and style legend Stephen Curry.
From the Met Gala to the NBA’s iconic tunnel walks, Curry is no stranger to bringing visibility and awareness to a new crop of designers and talent. Entering its second year, Curry and his stylist, Jason Bolden, have partnered with Rakuten, the shopping destination that gives cash back and rewards, to continue their ongoing work and amplify the voices and businesses of Black and Brown designers within the fashion industry.
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What began as highlighting designers from the Black in Fashion Council during Stephen’s tunnel walks has grown into a “see now, buy now” model. Each fit is available for purchase following the tunnel walk directly on Rakuten.
We sat down with the Golden State Warriors point guard to chat about style and how he uses his own visibility to bring light to designers across the space.
From the court to your partnership with Rakuten, you've redefined style for athletes. How does this partnership speak to your vision beyond basketball and sports?
It's just a great opportunity to leverage a platform that I've been blessed with like you said, not just on the court, but an ability to have to reach and be able to drive awareness to talented individuals across multiple different industries.
Within the fashion industry, there are definitely brands and designers, especially from the black and brown communities, who don't necessarily get the resources or the awareness that their talents deserve. It's really cool for some of these designers who tell their stories about why they got into the industry, what their story is and what they're trying to say through their brands. That awareness and driving that awareness are huge.
We've been on this project for now going on the second year, where we leverage the tunnel walks as a great opportunity for me to put on some “fire fits” as we call it, from brands that you might not have heard of, designers that you might not have heard of, and really put them on stage and then have a follow-up where not only that, but we're driving business through Rakuten's platform and it's been cool to see the energy that we've been able to drive through the 82 game schedule that the tunnel walks have become a real thing. It's just leveraging basketball for something greater than that and creating opportunities where it's necessary.
You've inspired countless fans with your confidence both on and off the court. How would you describe your style evolution over the years?
I became more intentional for sure, and a little bit more polished when it comes to working with Jason Bolden, who's a part of this project. When you walk into a room and you see racks of clothes all over the place, it's like, “oh yeah, I like that. I like that. I like that.” I might not wear that. I might not pick that for myself, but then you see somebody style it in a way that makes it suit me. I like to be casual and classic, fits that are easy to wear and comfortable. I don't want to stand out just for the sake of standing out. I don't need to be loud unnecessarily, but if a fit makes sense and it fits me, then it should be able to talk a big game on its own. That's kind of where I want to be most of the time, even to where me and my wife got to go to the Met Gala, I never thought that would be something that, yeah, I have fun with it.
It's evolved tremendously over the 16 years I've been in the league, and at the end of the day, I just want to have fun with it. It is a thing, like the tunnel walks have become a thing, and I want to have as much fun with it as possible.
How do you see your influence in connecting style and sports culture for a global audience?
I think culture is driven by a lot of different factors. I think the sports, fashion and music industries like art, all collide in different ways. I think the ability to have that overlap where you have sports fans who come to watch a game or follow us on social media, and you're able to stand for something that's a little different and bigger than just the game, and like you said, bringing communities together and creating opportunity. It's huge and on the surface it feels like low hanging fruit because it's like, “oh, I have this amazing opportunity where people actually care what you wear to a game, or people have so many eyeballs on that five-minute window when you get out of your car or get off the bus and walk to the locker room.” Then to think bigger about how you can leverage that is why we're here talking about this partnership.
The opportunity is to drive that awareness, even for young designers who can see different brands that they might not necessarily have come in contact with, to give them ideas about what they could be down the road when they come to reach their full potential. It's pretty cool just to know it is a full circle opportunity, not just for the designers that we're repping now, but for potentially the next generation of kids that say, “I want to be a fashion designer because I saw this fit and this is the first time I actually thought about what that would look like for me, designing something.” I've heard that story before, and that's pretty cool to think about, how we can do with this.
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Your style has always been very effortlessly cool, but distinctly your own. Who or what inspires the way you dress today?
When I came into the league, I was 21. I'm 36 now. You still want to be youthful and fun, but I'm the oldest guy in the locker room now, so you have to have that balance and speak to what life is like for me right now. I'm inspired by my kids. They come into my closet with me and my wife Ayesha, and they want to pick out our outfits for date night. It’s cool to see how they see the world and how much pride they have. “Dad's wearing the outfit I picked out for him” or helping me pack for a road trip, stuff like that.
With Jason Bolden and being on trend, but also, like you said, staying true to myself: it is a fun process to see where that range sits from year to year. The unknown is really cool. The cool part about fashion, you don't know what's coming down the pipeline.
Now, I have my own apparel brand with Curry Brand, and you're seeing the other side of it as well, working with designers and the team that put our stuff on shelves, and you want to be inspired by the fact that people are going to rock stuff that I've designed as well. That sense of pride is pretty cool. They want to be a part of that journey with me as well.
If you could sum 'em up, the synergy between Rakuten's values and your personal brand, how would you describe it?
I think the overall commitment to amplifying voices from all different backgrounds and being able to bring people together while creating opportunity, awareness that we're driving and the ability to put people on stage that deserve it is pretty special—and at the scale that we're trying to do it.
As partners, we all came together and said, “how can we leverage something that is important for me, is important for Rakuten, is important for these designers.” We found a great intersection there, and I think it's why we're doubling down and coming back with it. It was such a success the first year. We want to do it even bigger this year.
To learn more about Rakuten and shop the fit, visit rakuten.com. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Photography by: Oliver DeFilippo
