With a career average of slightly more than seven points per game, it doesn't seem reasonable to ask such an NBA player to promote a brand or even launch a personal line. But if the player is P.J. Tucker, it all makes sense.

Mr. Tucker recently teamed up with New York eyewear brand Temples & Bridges to launch his own line of sunglasses. Founded in 2016, The Temples & Bridges has featured on professional athletes, musicians and Internet celebrities.

In January 2020, Mr. Tucker met with Tito Riveros, the founder and designer of Temples & Bridges, in New York to discuss a partnership. As a sunglasses enthusiast, Tucker takes the collaboration seriously. "I love wearing sunglasses, and to have the opportunity to design one from scratch was a big deal."

During that meeting, Mr. Tucker fiddled with the various frames and lenses on the table, explained his preferences for sunglasses, and then asked Mr. Riveros to make a model out of clay. "Tucker knew what he wanted, and he just needed someone to help him put it on the drawing board." "Riveros told Forbes.

Notably, this is the first time Temples & Bridges has collaborated with outsiders to build products. Craftsmanship and intense attention to detail are big selling points of Temples & Bridges, and Mr. Riveros wants his partners to match him and the brand in a level of detail.

Clearly, Tucker can meet this requirement. In addition to the frames and lenses, Mr. Tucker pays attention to the shape of the hinges, the color and the pattern on the box, and is willing to meet with Mr. Rivello at 2 a.m. to discuss a design detail. 'I'm very proud of the fact that I designed them entirely.' Tucker said.

Mr. Tucker's first series with Temples & Bridges will be called June, named after his grandfather. The first "June" glasses come in three color schemes, and each pair was created by a team of 20 workers. As a result, the glasses will retail for a whopping $350, with a limited release of a few hundred pairs to begin with.

For their part, The Temples & Bridges look more at Tucker's fashion tag than his status as an NBA player when they work with him. As a puzzle player, Tucker's role on the court isn't all about the numbers. He's known to more fans, even outside of the sports world, for what he wears and his shoes, since only a handful of NBA players sit in the front row at Milan Fashion Week.

Tucker's sense of style stems from playing in Europe. Tucker was selected by the Toronto Raptors with the fifth overall pick in the 2006 draft, but was cut after one season. Between 2007 and 2012, Tucker played in leagues in Israel, Ukraine, Greece, Italy and Germany.

The experience of playing in European leagues brought Tucker into contact with many high-end fashion brands and even exclusive pieces from top designers in some discount stores. Even stadium security personnel are dress-conscious on game days, changing into overalls when they arrive. Tucker was impressed. "I thought it was the coolest thing in the world, proof that you take your work seriously," he says.

These days, sneakers in his left hand and coffee in his right, combined with fashion, have become a standard entry for Tucker. Through social media promotion and competition exposure, Tucker's racing shoes and matching have become the focus of attention of fans and fans alike, which has increased Tucker's commercial value.

In August 2020, Fear of God designer Jerry Lorenzo created a Nike Air Fear of God one-man version just for Tucker. There are only four pairs of the shoes in the world, two to Tucker and two to Lorenzo and his son. Tucker's stature in the world of sneakers and fashion is evident.

But Tucker wasn't content with being a "shoe king," and he opened his own fashion shop, The Better Generation, in Houston. As well as sneakers, The Better Generation also sells items such as shorts, T-shirts and hats. The partnership with Temples & Bridges will, of course, be followed in its stores.

Using sneaker culture as a springboard, Tucker managed to break into the fashion world and become a fashionista. In recent years, many NBA players have been willing to treat the entrance tunnel of the arena as a runway, showing their own collocation and fashion taste, and creating a miniature of a fashionable person. By riding this trend, players can not only enrich their off-field labels, but also enhance their influence and commercial ability.

Because of this, more and more dressers are entering the world of NBA players. Rachel Johnson, fresh out of Florida A&M University in the early 2000s with a major in English education, went on to dress stars like Jay-Z. In the process of working with Jay-Z, Johnson got to know LeBron James and advised him on what to wear when he entered the arena.

Professional athletes can not only express their feelings and demands through fashion clothes, but also attract the attention of fans and brands to achieve the purpose of media exposure and publicity. Meanwhile, the rise of social media platforms has made photos and videos of athletes' outfits a hot topic among fans, driving reporters and photographers to focus on players as soon as they walk into the arena.

For fashion brands, the stature of NBA players, seen as walking racks, is a great showcase in itself. And with the spread of social media platforms, a single photo can be a huge revenue source for a brand. After Chris Paul deplaned in Filling Pieces in March 2018, orders for the same product quadrupled in the two weeks since then, and Filling Pieces' website traffic has increased 104 percent.

"Athletes are creating more and more value for the brands they work with," said Roger Breum, head of marketing at Hookit, a sports marketing analytics firm. Over the past few years, athletes have become the most important part of professional sports, and that trend is not going to change dramatically anytime soon."

From this perspective, athletes such as Tucker who are trendy and fashionable may be more desirable because they can not only endorse a sports brand, but also match the tonality of a fashion brand and have a higher "fit".

On the other hand, sports brands can also add more fashion elements to their products to broaden their audience. A number of sportswear brands have already tried this, such as Jordan's joint product with French team Paris Saint-Germain. This series not only has functional products suitable for football and training, but also has a series of popular and fashionable casual clothes.

Athletes can become more fashionable, and sports brands can follow their footsteps and use their fashion attributes to promote more new products, making these products become fashionable and trendy items like jerseys and sneakers, which may open up new business opportunities.