Fashion Plates of the NBA Make Specs of Themselves

By SCOTT CACCIOLA and BEN COHEN

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Dwyane Wade and LeBron James of the Miami Heat speak with the media after beating the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals on June 9.

OKLAHOMA CITY?The way they fly around the basketball court, LeBron James and Kevin Durant often resemble Superman. Then they return to the locker room and come out looking like Clark Kent.

Mr. James, Mr. Durant and many other superstars in the NBA playoffs have found a novel way to accessorize their bespoke suits: thick-rimmed, chunky, ostentatious eyeglasses.

In the NBA, the new cool is geek chic. For most, the eyewear is purely a fashion statement, never mind old stigmas about astigmatism. Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook admits that his lenses are nonprescription. Like Mr. Westbrook, Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade has gone so far as to wear glasses without glass in them (or even plastic) as fashion models are sometimes known to do. And yet impeccable vision hasn't stopped Thunder and Heat players from flaunting the latest in designer eyewear at the NBA Finals.

"Back in the day, you wore them because you had to," said James Spina, the editor of 20/20, an eyewear trade publication. "These days, you wear them because you can't wait to wear them."

Nobody has been nattier this postseason than Mr. Westbrook, who has become nearly as famous for what Thunder guard Royal Ivey's mother, Jennifer, refers to as Mr. Westbrook's "Poindexter look" as for his ability to score at the rim. In the past month alone, Mr. Westbrook has been spotted wearing on his face designers like Barton Perreira, Mykita and Thom Browne.

His teammates say Mr. Westbrook first showed off his most famous pair?the fire-engine red, lensless Retrosuperfuture frames that resemble Ray-Ban's iconic Wayfarers?on a bus trip during the regular season. "You couldn't really tell that they didn't have lenses until you got up real close," center Nazr Mohammed said. Something else came to mind for Thunder assistant coach Rex Kalamian: "My first thought was 'Urkel,' " he said, referring to the uber-nerd from the 1990s sitcom "Family Matters."

Mr. Westbrook's look has also fueled a fashion feud this week with members of the Heat. Miami guard James Jones, who said he has a pair of Shuron Ronsirs similar to the ones Malcolm X once wore, dismissed Mr. Westbrook's look as "quirky." And that was before he really cut deep.

"I don't condone glasses without lenses," Mr. Jones said.

Then there is the small matter of who started the latest style. Mr. Westbrook said he was the only bespectacled NBA player as a rookie in 2008. "Everybody else just started wearing them now," he said.

LeBron James quickly disputed that version of events. "He absolutely didn't start it," he said. Mr. James wasn't certain who did. But he insisted that it definitely wasn't Mr. Westbrook.

It is impossible to know for certain?Thunder assistant Mark Bryant says he wore thick-framed Cartier frames as a player in the 1990s?but the lensless phenomenon is novel. As it turns out, that trend may have infiltrated the NBA from halfway across the world. Larry Leight, the creative director at the designer eyewear company Oliver Peoples, noticed for the first time a certain set wearing lensless frames on a recent trip overseas. The trendsetters: Japanese teenage girls. For them, lenses would have gotten in the way of long eyelashes, another accessory of choice. Mr. Leight's take on NBA players perhaps following their lead: "I don't know if they're doing it to get a laugh, or if they're serious."

NBA Goes Geek Chic

Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

LeBron James of the Miami Heat.

That young standouts like Mr. Westbrook and Mr. Durant wear eyeglasses, in a league where people still remember the sports goggles of Kurt Rambis and Horace Grant, represents a generational divide, as elder statesman Kobe Bryant suggested last month. Heat forward Juwan Howard, an 18-year NBA veteran, was part of the Michigan group known as the Fab Five that popularized black socks, black sneakers and baggy shorts. His own young children have been asking for glasses lately, even though they take after their father, who says he has perfect vision.

In the NBA, the only frame-free zone is the court itself. With few exceptions, those who do need corrective eyewear prefer contact lenses. But once the game is over, out come the high-end frames that can go for $500. Mr. Durant, a three-time scoring champion, even has a pair from Nike, one of his sponsors.

Mr. Ivey said he actually wore nonprescription glasses as a rookie with the Atlanta Hawks in 2004. He had a three-pair rotation, and Mr. Ivey thought he was on his way to launching a leaguewide, four-eyed phenomenon. Then he wound up misplacing all three frames. It is easy to lose your glasses when you don't need them to see. "I was just wearing them to jazz up the outfit," he says.

Thunder forward Nick Collison, who doesn't wear glasses, surmised that some players have motives that go beyond fashion. "Maybe they think it makes them look smarter," he said. Mr. Collison blogs for GQ.com but doesn't consider himself particularly stylish: "I'm from Iowa, so we're used to being a year or two late on everything."

Mr. Leight came up with another possible reason the frames are suddenly so popular in the NBA: They might make the players more comfortable in public settings. "You do kind of feel like you're shielded," said Mr. Leight.

Fashion is very much on the minds of Messrs. Wade and James, both of whom employ stylists. After the Heat won Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, Mr. Wade showed off frames crafted by Edward Beiner, the proprietor of 11 eyewear stores in Florida. His nonprescription lenses were made of antireflective coating to reduce glare in photographs. The front of the frames was dark tortoise shell, but the color at the back changed to translucent blue, which matched Mr. Wade's sky-blue blazer. Mr. Beiner said he customized the glasses with that particular jacket in mind.

Mr. Beiner attributed his wave of new clients to the sartorial utility of eyewear. "If you go to a dinner party," Mr. Beiner said, "those shoes will be under the table."

Mr. Westbrook's frames that scream red?which, Mr. Westbrook noted Wednesday, isn't even his favorite color?have caused such a stir that a number of people have called the retail store Black Optical inquiring about the availability of those Retrosuperfutures. The store sells eight other eyeglasses that Mr. Westbrook has worn, said Black Optical partner Ryan Bowling, but it didn't stock that particular type this season.

"Red lipstick, red car or a red dress, it's definitely an attention grabber," he said.

Nobody knows what optical trend is next?except the Heat's Mr. Jones. "Monocles," he said.

Write to Scott Cacciola at scott.cacciola@wsj.com and Ben Cohen at ben.cohen@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared June 15, 2012, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Fashion Plates of the NBA Make Specs of Themselves.

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