Met Gala 2025: Black Male Style in Sports From Game-Changers to Cultural Trendsetters [PHOTOS]

This year’s Costume Institute exhibition theme “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” marks a groundbreaking moment–it is the first costume exhibition dedicated to Black male style and the first all-male, all-Black committee. It is a fitting opportunity to celebrate Black male sports players’ style and influence in fashion as sports celebrities continue to embrace the art of dress to brand their individual style. So much is riding on their fashion choices that the NFL created the role of fashion editor in 2024 to share and create content for its roster of talent.

The 2025 Met Gala highlights this evolution, with Formula One champion Sir Lewis Hamilton as co-chair and NBA superstar LeBron James Sr. as honorary chair. Individually, they have revived the connection between sports figures and high fashion.

The exhibition is noted to take a sartorial look at Black male style through the framework of dandyism. While athletes have not always committed to the art of dress as self-expression, those who have are duly noted in the fashion press. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was known to buy a new tailored suit before entering the ring, and New York Knicks basketball great Walt “Clyde” Frazier frequently made note of his personal style. Frazier, an aficionado of custom tailored suiting in Edwardian to traditional stylings like Ali, often made for great coverage in WWD’s celebrity fashion timeline.

Today as in the past, fashion serves as another entry point to flex superstar athlete style. In the early 2000s, basketball player Amar’e Stoudemire made his presence known on fashion show front rows. Football players Victor Cruz, Odell Beckham Jr., and Cam Newton have done the same. The sports arena’s now infamous “tunnel” walk is as popular and photographed as a fashion runway show.

All the forementioned athletes have appeared on the Met Gala red carpet in recent years and fashion is at the ready to capture their dandy style at this year’s events. From WWD and the Fairchild Archive, here is a look at Black male sports icons whose fashion choices has influenced athletes’ individual off-court style.