In this FRONTPAGE story, we catch up with Jaylen Brown, an NBA player making history and setting a benchmark for style, both on and off the court.
Last summer, Jaylen Brown became the highest-paid player in NBA history, signing a record-breaking five-year contract extension worth $304 million with the Boston Celtics. It was the culmination of a seven-year career, which, so far, has earned him two NBA All-Star appearances, and a selection to the All-NBA second team last season. Brown, alongside teammate Jayson Tatum, form one of the most formidable one-two tandems in the league, and have helped turn the Celtics into an annual championship contender.
Brown has always defined himself not just by his on-court accomplishments but what he values as a person. Even back when he was a young kid growing up in Marietta, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta), Brown had an air of intellectual curiosity about him. But before he had a platform as an NBA athlete to make a tangible impact on the community, Brown was like any other kid growing up in the cultural capital of the United States, trying to one-up the people around him with his personal style.
“Everybody is trying to compete with each other in a sense of who’s got the freshest clothes, who’s doing the best in their field, what kind of car do you got, what does your girlfriend look like. All of that is the culture in Atlanta, especially in high school growing up,” he explains. “It was very competitive.”
When asked about his style inspiration back then, the NBA star quickly name-checks local artists including Young Thug, Future, Migos, T.I., Gucci Mane and Ludacris. But he’s particularly fond of Big Boi and André 3000 from OutKast, who pushed boundaries both in the studio with their music and on the runway with their outfits.
“Their style caught my eye more than anything,” says Brown. “Some of the stuff [they were wearing] I would be like, ‘Man, I wouldn’t wear it,’ but it was cool to see how they were expressing themselves, one with the music, and on top of that with their attire.”
White Air Force 1s, Ed Hardy tees, True Religion jeans, and Hermès belts were desired commodities in Brown’s wardrobe growing up. While he followed what was trending, Brown also wasn’t afraid to make a fashion statement. He drew the attention of those in the gym with his short-shorts, which became his signature look. Brown wore his basketball shorts way above his knee during a time when a more baggier style was considered the go-to look.
Opposing players would make fun of his shorts, which makes Brown shake his head today, considering how 5-inch inseams are widely accepted and short-shorts have become the new norm on the basketball court. “Now all the young guys are wearing their shorts all the way up, showing their whole leg,” Brown continues, laughing.
As a five-star recruit, Brown had offers from renowned college basketball programs across the country, including Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA, and Kentucky, but he chose the University of California, Berkleley. He knew what he wanted to get out of the academic side of his one-year college experience. And he did. He learned Spanish, practiced meditation, and spent many hours on campus chatting with his professors, soaking up knowledge from all kinds of places. Many of Brown’s family members have a background in education, including his mother Mechalle, and it’s not hard to see how their influences have been passed on.
But Brown doesn’t just want to learn, he wants to share the knowledge with others. After he was drafted by the Celtics third overall in 2016, he started to think about how to pave his own path.
“People forget I’m the highest-selected player to enter the NBA draft without an agent,” Brown says proudly. “I didn’t have a PR team, an agent, or a manager. If I wanted something done, I would get on the phone and write the email myself. I wanted to be aware and in control of where my brand and direction I wanted to go in. I learned so much in the process, on how to operate a business, how to articulate myself, and be efficient with myself.”
At All-Star Weekend in 2018, he hosted a networking lunch event and invited speakers from the sports, business, and entertainment world to offer their wisdom to NBA players.
Part of Brown’s expanding off-court portfolio includes his own clothing brand,7uice. Fashion has always sparked curiosity in Brown. Lately, he’s been into coordinating eyewear with his outfits. Brown speaks about putting together an outfit like it’s an art piece, yet in the same breath, he admits to being a creature of habit, and someone who gravitates toward comfort.
He still prefers his white Air Force 1s today, and says he’ll go through 100 pairs a year just to stay fresh. Despite showing up to the tunnel before games in myriad looks, he name-checks Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and his famous uniform as another major fashion inspiration. “That’s something that’s always been dope to me,” he says. “As I get older I think that’s something that I could replicate, where you create the uniform so that you just wear the same thing all the time. There’s so many things my brain is thinking about, and how much time I would save rather than spending an hour each day every week trying to figure out how I want to look, what I want to wear, what's the fit, what’s the lighting going to be when I get there, and if they're going to take pictures. You have to dress for the occasion and that takes a lot of effort and detail.”
All this to say, Brown values his time.. As a basketball player squarely in the prime of his NBA career, finding the space to pursue his goals off the court can be challenging, though he has no regrets about the path he took entering the league, and being the foreperson in launching his own brand.
Brown has a team who supports him – on the court and off – but he’s learned a lot of important lessons all on his own, getting to where he is today – in business, fashion, and of course, living a good life “The number one thing you learn is if somebody is beating around the bush,” he says. “Being on these calls, all these people love to talk in circles. I’m impatient. It gets boring.”
When he attended his first fashion week in Paris several years ago, Brown was blown away by Virgil Abloh’s artistic direction at the Louis Vuitton show. Brown introduced himself afterward. “I got to talk to him a little bit,” he recalls. “As a 20-year-old at the time, to get that experience, it was really cool. I remember telling him, ‘You don’t know how many people you inspire.’ He sparked something in so many people all over, especially in the fashion world.”
Over the years, Brown has surrounded himself with many of the heavy-hitters in the fashion industry, including Steven Smith, the well-renowned shoe designer responsible for the New Balance 574, among other popular sneaker models; Kerby Jean-Raymond, the founder of Pyer Moss; Samuel Ross, the founder of the luxury menswear label A-COLD-WALL*; and Verbal and Yoon, the couple behind the Tokyo-based brand AMBUSH.
Just this past offseason, Brown made his first visit to Tokyo and got to visit Verbal and Yoon. Of course, he also did a good amount of shopping. (After hitting up Dover Street Market in Ginza, Brown left the store with 88 pieces. “I set a record,” Brown says, laughing. “They took a picture of the receipt and said they’re going to put it on the wall. The receipt was from one end to the other.”)
While Brown admits he’s still learning how to build his own brand, through conversations he’s had with his new friends in fashion, he’s getting the hang of the practical side of opening a retail space, and diving into purposeful and statement-based fashion.
As athletes continue to merge sports and fashion, Brown is approached by more and more athletes, young and old, who are looking for advice. “I went through a lot of ups and downs, a lot of bumps and bruises, and being on phone calls that led to nowhere,” Brown says. “A lot of guys come to me and ask about my brand. I try to get them from point A to point B without them having to go through the headaches I had to endure.”
Now more than ever, the Celtics star believes athletes deserve a seat at the table when it comes to conversations about influencing people through fashion. “It’s been great for this prestigious world to combine with the world of basketball,” he says, and adding that it wasn’t so long ago that they weren’t connected at all.
“Fashion is an art form and I’m constantly being inspired,” he says. “There’s inspiration all around if you take the time to see it. There’s never been a better time than now to express who you are and what you represent. I’m constantly inspired by the world around us. We’ve got a bunch of amazing creative human beings that are walking around this planet and just being in the presence of some has given me some great ideas and will continue to give me great ideas for the future.”
As his reach becomes bigger, Brown’s goals are expanding too.His mother Mechalle always taught him about the importance of speaking up for those who might not have the platform to express their thoughts to the world, but it was in college that he began to learn more about social justice advocacy. In 2020, after the killing of George Floyd, Brown jumped in his car and drove 15 hours back home to be part of a peaceful protest against police brutality in Georgia. He became one of the most vocal voices among present-day athletes in pushing for police reform.
More recently, Brown launched the 7uice Foundation, which has begun to provide educational opportunities to kids from underserved communities. And last year, Brown, along with teammates Malcolm Brogdon and Grant Williams, met with members of the Department of Justice to discuss social justice priorities and criminal justice reform. One of the topics which came up was about how NBA players can continue to use their platform to encourage collaboration, conversation, and help to enact changes.
After signing his record-breaking contract extension this summer, Brown spoke about the desire to address the wealth disparity in America, and finding a way to launch a project which would bring what he describes as a Black Wall Street to Boston.
What else does Brown want to accomplish?
He pauses for a few seconds to think about this question. It’s hard to provide a succinct answer; clearly, Brown has a lot on his mind, and a lot he wants to get done.. “There are a lot of goals,” he says, breaking the silence before pausing again. “In short, I just want to make the world a better place.”
