Role Model: Eric Emanuel

This Week’s Role Model is designer Eric Emanuel most notably known for his “Best Shorts in the World” and recent collaboration with Reebok & Allen Iverson’s Answer 5 that released this past weekend at ComplexCon Chicago.

Eric’s collab at the first ever Chicago Complexcon was one of my favorites if not the best collaboration of the two day event. Yes of course there was Chicago’s own JoeFreshGood’s and The Hundreds collab but this A.I. Collab was iconic, and not only because of Iverson’s appearance at Complexcon but how Eric has tapped into a fond memory of my childhood and a lot of our childhoods and adolescent years reintroducing a shoe silhouette in reebok’s Answer 5 that was peak “I wanna be like Iverson” era that took the world by storm late 90’s early 2000’s! For the record the shoe was never a good looking shoe to me, but nonetheless they were copped and it was cornrows and arm sleeves everywhere, with a commercial featuring JadaKiss that is still fire to this day if you can remember it. “It’s Jada and AI, go get the A5’s!”

Furthermore Eric and Reebok transformed a Complexcon booth into a carnival games shootout where you could win a pair of the coveted new EE Answer 5 in a Complexcon exclusive pink colorway and a custom EE Iverson diamond chain seen above. Eric’s attention to detail and hoop culture influences in his clothing gives a nostalgic yet new and fresh feeling to me.

Yes they’re just shorts at the end of the day but the colorways and marketing is genius. Something about Eric’s apparel brings back feelings of team shorts us hoopers would steal after summer league games or practice uni’s we kept after the season but fashionable.

Summer Essentials whether you hittin the club or courtside. Even playing with high fashion logos, Eric Emanuel has taken a simple summer staple and gone global by understanding exclusivity and the fickle trend market that is streetwear. Partnering with brands that understand his niche market and by creating a nostalgic feeling with his brand and not just an overload of branded product for the masses. When you see the EE on the shorts you know that person is hip to some shit. at least that’s my first thought. You can shop his many limited runs of apparel at his site EricEmanuel.com!