The Brooklyn Nets Merges Merch with Luxury

Named Barō, the label isn’t merch but a luxury-leaning brand in line with contemporary menswear labels like Aimé Leon Dore. Barō’s first collaboration is with Colm Dillane of New York-based streetwear brand KidSuper. The ongoing emphasis on locality in sport-and-fashion team-ups continues, as Dillane himself is from and based in Brooklyn.

While New York’s other National Basketball Association (NBA) team the Knicks has Kith’s Ronnie Fieg on board as their in-house creative director (overseeing merch and jerseys as well as more fashion-focused pieces – read The Brief), this new model will see the Nets both create own-brand products and collaborate with other fashion brands and designers on collections that are more sartorially driven than licensed merch and sit at a higher price point, aiming to fill a gap in the high-end streetwear market.

Basketball has long been a more fashion-focused sport than most, but now it’s reaching fever pitch, and brands, players and teams alike are readily exploring the lucrative opportunities beyond just merch (although that’s still a priority). Kim Kardashian’s Skims has become the NBA’s official underwear partner, while college basketball star Angel Reese recently announced her intention to enter the Women’s NBA draft via an American Vogue shoot. Women-aimed accessories brands, like Lele Sadoughi and BaubleBar (both US), are courting new fan demographics via basketball collaborations.

With the NBA playoffs and finals (as well as both the NBA and WNBA drafts) fast approaching, attention on player style will ramp up over the coming months. Expect future fashion and basketball crossovers to further blur the line between merch and luxury.