Kelly Oubre Jr. Is One of the NBA’s Best-Dressed Players. Now, He Wants to Introduce Fans to His Brand, Dope$oul.

The relationship between the NBA and fashion is one that seems to only strengthen with each passing year. We all know about the makeshift runway shows happening in pregame tunnels. Even players who used to keep things casual by wearing their team’s practice gear to the arena are participating now in some way. Players showing off their best fits before taking the court for games is nothing new. But much fewer players can say they actually have their very own brand.

One of those players who has been able to take his interest in fashion one step further is Charlotte Hornets forward Kelly Oubre Jr. The 25-year-old has become one of the NBA’s best-dressed players since entering the league back in 2015. Some days his style perfectly encapsulates the NBA’s off-court taste level: a vintage NASCAR T-shirt layered with a checkered flannel, distressed denim jeans, and a pair of flashy sneakers. But where he shines is his embrace of what some may consider riskier style choices: painted nails, a skin-tight long sleeve shirt and black leather pants combo, or a spiked choker necklace. But with his brand Dope$oul, Oubre Jr. wants to send a deeper message with his designs and tell a story along the way.

“I’m trying to take y’all through my life with this capsule in a sense,” Oubre Jr. tells Complex. “I have double entendres on my life and everything that I go through, or we all go through as human beings, throughout all the things that I drop just because of the simple fact that it’s all love, art, and life.”

Oubre Jr.’s upcoming drop with Dope$oul is a reintroduction of sorts. During the quarantine, he released a small capsule of cozy loungewear for fans to rock around the house. Now, he plans on delivering his first fully fleshed out capsule, Baptized By Fire, which he says is the first of four capsules he will release this year. Select attendees like fellow NBA tunnel standout Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, designer Olivier Rogers, and jeweler Alex Moss got a first look at the upcoming drop at a special pop-up event held during New York Fashion Week last week at one of the city’s most notorious boutiques, Patron of the New.

The nine-piece offering that was displayed in the purple-tinted event space includes a vintage washed hoodie with white flames running up the sleeves and an image of flaming purple skeletons covering the back, a cream and black “D$” logo snapback cap with a purple undervisor, that was donned by Oubre Jr. for the festivities, grey denim cargo pants, and a very of-the-moment face covering sublimated with an image reminiscent of the brand’s melting skull logo. Oubre Jr. says that the official release will take place in the coming days via his Dope$oul web store.

“I just want to inspire the youth and the dope souls around the world who don’t have the same circumstances to pretty much feel confident in themselves and make decisions for themselves unapologetically,” says Oubre Jr. “This is just the warm up for real, shoutout Cole.”

Ahead of the pop-up at Patron of the New, we sat down with Oubre Jr. over Zoom to discuss the new line, balancing a brand and basketball, the NBA tunnel, and more.

Check out the full conversation below.

I know that you’ve released some pieces before through the brand. The first release sort of focused more on cozy essentials for quarantine and stuff like that, but what’d you really want to accomplish this time around with the full collection?

The first things that I dropped were predominantly to have people in their houses able to just wear cozy stuff during quarantine, but the main purpose behind that drop was just to show use of the mark, right? So I had the LLC for about four years, but it was finally time to show you proof of sales, hang tags, the whole logistical aspect of it, things like that. This is really the reinvention of the same wheel. This is Dope$oul. Whatever you saw before was not Dope$oul. This is the new wave. I’m super excited to put this energy out to the world because you’ll see the versatility of the brand, the quality, and the attention to detail we have with everything. And this is just the beginning. There’s four capsules that I plan on releasing, this being the first one, 001. We’re going to continue to experiment, continue to listen to the consumer, continue to just create art that’ll be around forever.

Will the four capsules be rolled out throughout the rest of the year?

That’s the goal, man. I’ll have them roll out specific times out the year, and just continue to keep this thing going consistently.

Can you talk a little bit about some of the pieces that we’ll see in this first capsule?

I have two styles of T-shirts, two styles of hoodies, three styles of pants, and a puffer coat along with accessories and things like that. But you know, garment wise, that’s what we’re releasing. I’m trying to take y’all through my life with this capsule in a sense. I have double entendres on my life and everything that I go through, or we all go through as human beings, throughout all the things that I drop just because of the simple fact that it’s all love, art, and life.

This is called ‘Baptized By Fire’ because they say when somebody goes through a tough time, they go through the dark night of the soul where they don’t feel the presence of the most high. They feel alone, they feel abandoned, they feel like they’re going through a lot of dark times. And everybody goes through them. ‘Baptized By Fire’ is you coming out on top, learning from your mistakes, learning from your trials and tribulations, and pretty much conquering that evil. I’ve been baptized by fire my whole life coming from New Orleans, Louisiana and being uprooted by Hurricane Katrina, moving to Houston, Texas and being homeless, the list goes on, but I don’t want nobody to feel bad for me because I don’t feel bad for myself. I just want to inspire the youth and the dope souls around the world who don’t have the same circumstances to pretty much feel confident in themselves and make decisions for themselves unapologetically.

When you look at the first capsule coming out, do you have a favorite piece?

I have a favorite piece, this cut and sew T-shirt, the Malibu T-shirt. I’ll explain why later, but right now that’s my favorite piece and it just has a lot of encrypted messages on it that are all positive of course. It hits close to my heart strings. Also just all the cut and sew pieces, the high-end fashion pieces that we’re dropping are all going to be super dope too.

When it comes to creating the line itself and the collections, is it just you right now? Do you have a team that’s helping you with the designs? What’s that whole dynamic as far producing the line right now?

Yeah, man. I have a team for sure. You’re only as good as your team, you know. I definitely appreciate each and every one of them. I have a graphic design team, a project management team, and then I also have my fiance who holds me down and just answers the phone when I’m at my workouts or who checks my emails. I got 40 to 50,000 emails in my inbox, but she holds me down and makes sure I’m up to date with everything going on since there’s a lot going on.

Obviously you’re super passionate about the brand, but you also are still a professional NBA player. So how much time are you really able to dedicate to Dope$oul?

I’m glad you asked me that because people have a stigma against me loving the industry of fashion and playing basketball. They don’t know that an individual can do both or do all the things that they put their mind to. But during the season, I’m really locked in. There are times like on flights or in the hotel room after practice that I can just whip up and create my ideas and everything that I want to see come to life. And I give all details, everything that pretty much can create a garment or a capsule or a collection, I’ll have all that ready to send. And I’ll allow them to come up with the graphics. I already have the patterns.So I just need whatever I’m going to do, whether it be screen printed or embroidered, to be mocked up. So, I have time during the season just to do that solely, but as far as the whole business, it’s only an off season thing. I also have to compartmentalize my workouts in the off season along with doing things like this. I haven’t really gone anywhere this summer. I’ve been locked in LA in the gym. Now is the time where I’m still in the gym, but at the end of the day, I just move along with the time. I gotta get my work in first and foremost because that’s what comes first. Dope$oul is just my creative outlet that I’m blessed to have.

When you’re brainstorming the next drop or the next collection, are there any brands specifically that sort of influence what you do with the brand?

So, I mean, my favorite brand of all time is Chrome Hearts. I give them a lot of credit for just being timeless, for staying around for a very long time and for doing everything with so much attention to detail. They kind of create everything in house and do everything themselves. I definitely take a page out of that book, not aesthetic wise because I feel like everybody should bring their own artistic views on fashion in their own way. So although I do wear their shit, I’m not trying to be like Chrome Hearts. I’m not trying to be like nobody. I pay them ultimate respect because I just love the brand and I love everything that they’ve done. I would just give them some love right now because today’s Dope$oul day, we ain’t worried about nobody else, but that is the company that I could sit here and say that from fashion, to couture, to accessories, to whatever you could think of that Chrome Hearts makes they just do it organically them.

So you’re locked in with your playing career right now, but there’s always the life after the NBA. Do you see the brand becoming a full-time pursuit for you when you finally hang it up? Not saying that’s anytime soon, but when that time does come, is it something that you’d want to pursue more fully?

This, movies, film, I have Dope$oul Productions as well so we’re in the process of trying to create some things to go on the TV screen. Obviously fashion. And I’m not a big music industry guy, but at the end of the day if I can help younger artists get their art out to the world then that’s what I’m going to try to do. So when I’m done hooping, everything creatively, I’m going to try to jump straight into that world.

Brandon Jennings and Nick Young have sort of been able to do similar things with brands of their own. Russ [Westbrook] is a guy who is still playing at a high level and he has his brand. Have you ever talked to any of those guys or bounced ideas off them about growing your brand or anything like that?

Nah, man. The ego is a hell of a drug. A lot of people think that individuals are competition instead of trying to uplift the youth, the younger generation. These guys are all older than me. We’ve crossed paths. BJ is the homie. BJ’s the one person that I would say out of that group of individuals who communicates and talks about things that he does or we bounce ideas off each other. But at the end of the day, we are all, in a sense, trying to do the same thing. I’m the youngest to do it. I’m the waviest to do it. And I’m the one to do it without reaching the age of 30. The sky’s the limit for all of us as we continue to create and step into the fashion world, but I’m bringing a different energy behind it because I have to show that I am in this for real and I can hoop. Those guys were pretty much made when they was in the league. I’m still getting baptized by fire in the league because of the simple fact that they have a stigma against me like, ‘Does he love basketball?’ I’ve gotten better each and every year, minus last year, but at the end of the day this year is another opportunity for me to come out and show y’all that I’ve gotten better.

From working on the brand, what’s the biggest lesson that you’ve learned about the fashion world as you’ve been pursuing this that maybe you didn’t realize before from the outside looking in?

I remember my first fashion week. I just got drafted. I was in DC, took a train up to New York. I’m sitting in the nosebleeds of shows in the like third row. I didn’t really know the hierarchy or the social status thing back in the day when I first started doing fashion week, but it was a rude awakening because if you’re not doing something that’s inspirational or that’s creative, and you’re just plain Jane bland in this industry, you’re really not gonna get the eyes. You’re really not going to get the views that one would want to see on their art. I learned that the hard way, man, because I thought I could dress, I thought I could do this, but I had a lot to learn about the real fashion industry, the luxury fashion industry, of course. And I’m organically myself. I wouldn’t ever switch it up or change for nobody. So it kinda just made me think about being complacent, being stagnant, or not having the mindset to just do things in a different way. I think I learned a lot in that aspect over the years. And just not being judgmental. Obviously, all the things that we’re going through in the world, people do different things, everyone’s different. So you just have to respect people in their different ways and way.

When it comes to the event that you’re doing for fashion week to show off the collection, you hosted it at Patron of the New. Why Patron of the New? Do you have any sort of relationship with Jonathan [Pak] and the shop at all?

Jonathan Pak is my dog. I’ve known him for a very long time. It was a no brainer for me. When I decided that I wanted to force everybody to be on board with me to do this pop up at the very last minute, Jonathan was the first person and the only person that popped into my mind because of the simple fact that he has a great prime location. I want to add more noise to his store because I don’t want to do it at a spot that I don’t even know the owners of. I wanted to drive traffic through his store so that he can make some money as well. And, you know, it’s just a super dope artistic looking spot. I felt like it fit the vision. So shout out to Jonathan and his family for opening the doors for us.

Do you think there is a stigma with an NBA guy starting his own label?

I’m living it man, for real. That’s one-hundred percent a stigma, but the way you break that is continuing to get better doing your job playing basketball. You continuously remain professional playing basketball and you don’t let anything interfere with you and your team and the goals that you guys have together as far as winning and having comradery. Basketball comes first. I was blessed with the skills and the talent to play and to still be able to make a name for myself in the NBA. So I would never take that for granted. But at the end of the day, when is one supposed to start setting themselves up for after basketball? The way that fashion in the NBA has worked out, about 2015, the year I came into the league, was the year that the “tunnel” started becoming a thing. I’m not trying to discredit anybody else. There were definitely some fresh guys, but dudes was not dressing like that until the new wave of guys came in. Now all of a sudden it’s kind of normal, but it’s also since I’m more eccentric than probably everybody else, I paint my nails, I got blonde hair, I’m different on the outer exterior, they would probably judge me a little harder. These other dudes are more solidified with their organizations or in the NBA, but I’m still fighting for that. I’m still going to show y’all that I can really hoop and I do this shit with a passion as well.

Speaking on the tunnel real quick, obviously you’ve gotten your praises on Instagram and people are looking out for what you’re wearing in the tunnel. Do you pay attention to that aspect of it? Do you look at the criticisms and the compliments?

I literally just put it on what will make me feel good and I rock that shit. But I kinda don’t want that credit for real because at the end of the day, like I’m trying to do something that none of these dudes are doing. I’m trying to do something that’s organically me, wear my own stuff through the tunnel, wear Dope$oul through the tunnel for 82 games. I know I’m already in a different lane than anybody that’s just trying to put some clothes on cause the dudes that’s still putting clothes on are putting other people’s clothes on. So I’m winning, you know what I’m saying? So I got like MVP of the LeagueFits deal and that was cool, some consideration, some notoriety, that’s cool. And then I started noticing how everybody wanted to get dressed. Not everybody wearing tracksuits and Nike Tech Fleeces no more. Everybody wanna put some shit on. So I’m like, ‘Alright, let me dumb my swag down.’ I don’t like to be like nobody else. It’s tug and pull, but it’s all fun and games forreal. It’s like a game within a game.

You sort of mentioned this, but you paint your nails, you’ve worn certain pieces in the tunnel. You take some risks that other players, or just people in general, maybe wouldn’t take with their outfits. How did you really sort of embrace that aspect of fashion and get comfortable with that for yourself and do you have any sort of advice to people who might be a bit apprehensive about stepping out of their comfort zone when it comes to fashion?

Yeah, man, listen, I’m one-hundred percent authentically me. Nobody’s going to sit here and tell me just because I wear something I felt like wearing that...you can’t judge me bro because I’m one-hundred percent confident in my masculinity. I’m married. I have a kid. Everybody’s good. So just because I choose to wear something that makes me feel good or a company is paying me to wear their shit, your opinion means nothing because at the end of the day you’re just showing that you wouldn’t do that. And that’s cool. That’s one opinion.

And for the people who are second guessing themselves, I would say, bro, just don’t worry about other people. Nobody’s going to make you happy unless you make yourself happy. And then that the people around you are happy. Just be yourself, man, unapologetically. It’s not about what you wear. It’s how you rock it and how confident you are in it.

Are there any other brands in particular that you’re sort of messing with right now? Or are we going to get 82 games of Dope$oul in the tunnel?

No, we’re probably not going to get 82 games of just my shit yet, but soon come. It will happen. But yeah, I just show love to like the homies man. I wore some Most Hated shorts to work out with the team two days ago at a team mini camp in Miami. I wore a Tuff Crowd hat the other day. I still show love to the people who are trying to do the same thing, who are trying to create art, and to inspire, and to use their platform and their fashion influence to do something better, especially athletes. You’ll only see clothes from people that I respect on my body.

I know you had some Dope$oul jewelry made for yourself. Who does your pieces?

Shout out to my boy, Ken Jen out in LA, Fenom and Co., he used to work under Ben Baller and he started his own brand. Gabby Elan, he makes the teeth. I’m actually finna go pull up on him right after this to get this Dope$oul tooth that I got from him. Jason of Beverly Hills, he’s been solid since day one. Rafaello and Co., Avianne, Alex Moss, that’s pretty much it, man. Fenom and Co. has made all my custom pieces. As far as GIA certified diamonds, I show love to everybody.

I have one hoops question for you. I know you’re in Charlotte now, a young squad with yourself and LaMelo and Miles Bridges and everyone else there. I saw you guys were running the other day. There was a clip that surfaced. Are you excited for what you guys can put together for the regular season and just what’s to come from that new era?

I’m ecstatic, bro. I’m ready to just go out and have fun with these guys. I don’t want to speak on it too much. But at the end of the day, I know for a fact what we’re capable of doing, but we can’t do that unless we put one foot in front of the other and remain humble. It’s a young, energetic team, swaggy team, we’re going to have the energy. We’re going to have the waves, the swag, let’s get the wins now. That’s the goal, right? So I’m happy as hell to be in Charlotte. It’s going to be fun.