Some people go to the Met Gala for the self-promotion. Some go because it’s the ultimate game of dress-up. But Dwyane Wade, the N.B.A. Hall of Famer turned game-show host, brand ambassador and philanthropist, went for something else.
He went for the market research.
See, this week, Mr. Wade will assume yet another role: the guest editor of Players, a new magazine from the publishing company of the former French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld, and the first dedicated solely to athletes and style. Or the style of athletes.
Forget the tunnel walk. Like the Met Gala, which was attended by more sports celebrities this year than ever before, including the co-chair and racecar driver Lewis Hamilton; the sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson; the W.N.B.A. players Angel Reese, Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart; and the N.F.L. quarterback Jalen Hurts, Players signals a new stage in the increasingly intertwined relationship of sports and fashion.
A biannual magazine, Players is the brainchild of Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld, its editor in chief and the chief executive of CR Fashion Book Ltd., which publishes the namesake style magazine founded by his mother, Carine.
Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld, the Players mastermind, at Paris Fashion Week in June 2024. Credit…Lyvans Boolaky/Getty Images
“At CR, we were giving an incredible platform to models, to singers, to actors,” Mr. Roitfeld said. “But, in my mind, athletes were even more interested in fashion than other celebrities. Actors, when they’re not on the screen, try to have a more discreet life. But for athletes, fashion has always been important in building an identity.”