Kevin Durant on Fashion Choices: 'If I Like It, That's All That Matters'

Kevin Durant has no problem with the NBA’s dress code, instituted in 2005 by Commissioner David Stern. From his first season in the league, 2007-08, Durant has injected his own anti-trendy fashion choices into the code’s conservative constraints.

Those choices, of course, have become trendy.

Remember the backpacks? How about these thick-framed lenses lately (he needs them, actually)? Bow ties? What’s with this nerdy chic?

What compels KD to go his own way, to work looks no one has worked before and to wear a very snug backpack to every postseason postgame interview?

“I would describe my style as off the wall,” Kevin Durant told Teen Vogue. “I like stuff that doesn’t match. I just like to stand out.”

It’s not solely what Durant wears—it’s how he wears it, too, as the Oklahoman notes:

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It's not just that Durant wears the backpack to every postgame press conference. He also leaves it on the entire time. With all the straps buckled and tightened in front, he looks like he's ready to hike across campus to geometry class.

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The next thing you know, Nike has added KD backpacks to its line. It almost looks like a shrewd business move straight from the start, one that connects Durant with a huge NBA fan bloc—millions of students.

Backpacks are one thing, but smooth duds go a lot further. A simple Google search on “Kevin Durant style” brings up results for GQ (where he filled in as a “style correspondent” critiquing fellow NBAers), Complex Magazine, fashion slideshows and a Sports Illustrated “Style Watch.”

Durant’s latest accessories are slightly oversized “geek-chic glasses in eye-catching hues,” a trend that's catching all around the NBA. He is on the cusp of “nerd chic,” defined at urbandictionary.com as:

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Clothing or accessories that are very geeky/nerdy and yet, at the same time, says "I'm cool because I'm proud of the fact that I'm a nerd, and am not afraid to dress the part."

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That last part turns out to be Kevin Durant’s secret. It’s how he became such an arbiter of style.

Nothing to it. And a good lesson for students, too.

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“My style has changed and evolved mainly because I’ve grown to have more confidence in myself. The clothes are not making me…If I like it, that’s all that matters…It’s not about the clothes. It’s about how I am as a person and how confident I am.”

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