Cultural Dispatch: All-Star Weekend 2020

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Last weekend saw the NBA All-Star Weekend returning to Chicago for the first time in 32 years. The last time the Windy City hosted All-Star Weekend, Michael Jordan was only beginning to cement his status as a legend, and the cultural landscape was a far cry from what it is today. This year, the untimely passing of Kobe Bryant gave the lead-up to the event a distinctive energy, with the main event becoming a sort of tribute to the late Lakers legend.

However, as much as All-Star Weekend is about basketball, it’s also about the passions that surround the sport, and the host city itself. One of our creative strategists, Tom Ryan, was on the ground to take it all in firsthand; read on for his impressions of All-Star Weekend 2020.

It me, @toomanytomryans. Almost completely defrosted from my first time seeing snow! Now that I can type again, here’s my recap from someone who knows nothing about basketball but ran (as our friends at Highsnobiety so gracefully put it) clout-adjacent for the weekend – living out what I’m certain was my teenage brother’s dream weekend.

I was really in town on behalf of the projects*, supporting a pair of activations with PUMA and their retail partners Foot Locker and Champs. PUMA was clearly planting their flag and cementing their place in the culture at their second ASW moment since launching the PUMA Hoops basketball division at the back end of 2018. Over the weekend, both experiences leaned into the intersection of basketball, fashion and music with a healthy dose of altruism thrown in. Kicking off the weekend, PUMA officially revealed their partnership with J.Cole and then continued with product drops, community-focused programming and appearances from the brand’s ever impressive roster of entertainment talent and heavy hitters from the PUMA Hoops squad (I’m looking at you Gunna and Kyle Kuzma).

Previously a pivotal moment on the sporting calendar, reserved for the basketball community and its immediate brand counterparts, ASW has transcended its core purpose to become a major cultural moment. While there was a definite sense of mourning for Kobe, mostly I noticed the bustling energy brought to life by the influx of NBA fans, hypebeasts and assorted celebrities descending on the city to either witness or take part on their own terms. Of particular note was the outpouring of love for hometown heroes Michael Jordan, Kanye West and Virgil Abloh; each dominated the weekend in one way or another.

For starters, it was clear that Chicago is a Jordan city. You couldn’t take a step without seeing someone laced up in a pair of J’s. The Jordan space at 32 State St was a constant hub of activity and consistently had the longest queue of any activation I saw. At one point, I drove past Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse. I didn’t go — was that a miss? Should I go back?

Over on Michigan Ave, my colleague Teresa (????) and I got a boot camp-style induction into Virgil Abloh’s design process. Passing through NikeLab Re-Creation Center ℅ Mr. Abloh, we finessed our way into a jersey design contest for the Rise Basketball league. This annual camp empowers Chicago’s youth through sport and community; the contest allowed guests to create moodboards from curated mixed materials and translate them into new jersey designs. The activation was refreshingly intimate and fit into the spirit of DIY and disruption that drives Virgil’s work. Though we didn’t leave the workshop with any swag (we’re waiting to hear back about our winning design, Virg), we walked away with a sense of giving back, which was a prevalent theme throughout ASW’s brand activations.

On Friday my Twitter started buzzing with the type of hectic frenzy reserved for only one type of event: Kanye West was making moves somewhere nearby. Turns out, the Chicago native was mobilizing a military-esque motorcade through the city for an unexpected drop. Truly for the people, the “Sherp” ATVs rolled through various Chi-town neighborhoods, distributing free pairs of the new YEEZY QNTM basketball sneaker ahead of its general release. Joining the punters, I braved the cold for 15 minutes by running to Grant Park to see if I could snag myself a pair of free kicks. I took a major L though – didn’t see the trucks, nor get the shoes. The mixture of insurgent energy, ominous visuals and chaotic enthusiasm was classic Ye, and it’s inspiring to see how far Adidas continues to follow him in the pursuit of his esoteric vision. This was for sure one of the most talked about branded moments of the weekend.

Lastly, shoutout to the aftermarket heavyweights, StockX and Flight Club, who swarmed the city and created temporary outposts for resellers to flip their cops. As sneaker resale continues to become a lucrative side hustle, these trusted entities who verify and control the market have realized that the array of exclusive releases at an event like ASW comes with opportunity. Now any cashed-up, time-poor consumers can get their clout-adjacent fix by paying a little extra and padding the pockets of those killing the culture for the sake of profit. Those kicks Ye was passing out for free… well, they’re now running around $780 in my size (US9 for those playing at home). I guess that’s a pretty good payday if you’re willing to stand out in the snow for a few hours.

Catch me in Indianapolis for ASW 2021 and until then, alley-oop.

Tom

on behalf of the projects*