The 25 Best Dressed Athletes Right Now

For better or worse, athletes are increasingly looked at as style icons and trendsetters. There was a time when we only saw these dudes in ridiculously tacky suits on draft day. But thanks to Instagram, corporate sponsorships, and league dress codes, athletes are beginning to see the branding potential in becoming bespoke gentlelads. Many of these guys also have stylists and incredibly high credit limits, so sports stars can stunt in a rarified air usually reserved for Saudi oil princes and Lenny Kravitz's kids. However, copping the most expensive clothes doesn't automatically translate to great style, and these are the dudes separating themselves from the pack. Trade in your salsa stained jersey for a Balenciaga cardigan as we countdown The 25 Best Dressed Athletes Right Now.

Written by Sean Evans (@seanseaevans)

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Team: Houston Texans
Sport: Football

Arian Foster's one of these undrafted free agent-types with a chip on his shoulder, and you can tell by the way he dresses that every move he makes is a not-so-subtle "fuck you" to those who doubted him. Foster's look is equal parts Swizz Beatz' spiritual advisor and 19th century oil tycoon. Each loud piece is designed to passive aggressively announce his arrival, a move that totally fits his on-field style of play.

Team: Buffalo Bills
Sport: Football
Instagram: @stvnboard

Stevie Johnson keeps his Bay Area style without looking too much like Lil B's weed carrier; a worthwhile tribute in its own right. Most athletes that go the streetwear route end up looking like Brandon Sales with 21 inch biceps, but the Bills wide receiver seems much more self-aware and having more fun than those other stale hypebeasts.

Team: Memphis Grizzlies
Sport: Basketball
Instagram: @mac11

The Memphis Grizzlies are perpetually the most slept-on team in the NBA and their starting point guard's style is similarly overlooked. Mike Conley has the look of a sales associate at a men's boutique where they sell heavy flannels imported from Britain and offer in-store tailoring on a vintage Singer sewing machine. He can juggle fitted blazers, high-end sneakers, and the occassional wooden bow tie without flinching. We call that a triple threat.

Team: Cleveland Browns
Sport: Football
Instagram: @joehaden23

This guy wore gold-studded Christian Louboutin loafers to his wedding. That's the kind of shameless egotism you need to display if you expect to be taken seriously as a style icon whilst playing defensive back for the Cleveland Browns. Haden's shoe game is crazy and he bounces around between casual and dressy looks like Kid Cudi, if Cudder ran a four-five 40 and could blitz off the edge.

Team: Carolina Panthers
Sport: Football

This guy looks, and occasionally dresses, like Chris Brown on a steady diet of grizzly bear testosterone, but Cam Newton's look is on point more often than not. The Panther quarterback grew up in Atlanta, which is a recipe for adopting tasteful eccentricities like Andre 3000 or a completely busted look like Lil' Jon. Newton shades towards the former, a testament to spending your formative years doing push-ups and shuttle runs instead of chugging Pimp Juice in a DJ booth.

Team: Chicago Bulls
Sport: Basketball

Generally speaking, the NBA's fashion culture is an all-over-print race to the bottom, but Derrick Rose manages to stay refreshingly understated. Like, if we had an MVP award by our 22nd birthday and $250M rolling in from adidas, we'd rock diamond encrusted fedoras and clogs made out of rhino horns on the daily. This guy somehow balances humility with unequivocal confidence, which is something you see as much in his personal style as you do in his on-the-court game.

Team: Minnesota Vikings
Sport: Football

Adrian Peterson's running style is not unlike that of a wild mustang on angel dust, but his personal style is much more refined. This guy bruises someone's brain every time he drops his shoulder, so we'd be afraid to slump this dude's steez even if he dressed like Christian Ponder plays. Thankfully, he mixes patterns like a pro and hasn't met a pair of wingtips he didn't get along with, so we don't even have to front.

Team: FC Barcelona/Argentina's National Team
Sport: Soccer
Instagram: @leomessi

From velvet blazers to this Dolce and Gabbana polka dot tuxedo, Lionel Messi dresses like Heath Ledger's Joker—if they gave that sadistic clown a shower and free reign at Bergdorf Goodman. Messi is a supremely confident person, which for some people could translate to being the type of dude that walks around with an unzipped motorcycle jacket an no undershirt. Instead, he checks that fashion fuckery at the door and wears something that works without blending in.

Team: Los Angeles Lakers
Sport: Basketball
Instagram: @stephennash

Steve Nash dresses like a guy that buys Andy Warhol paintings with the money he embezzles from a Ponzi scheme. In other words, we totally dig this dude's elegant sketchiness. Nash, like many in the NBA, is in the throes of a style renaissance. The guy who once dressed like this, now looks like a high powered attorney that does blow with the guys from Maroon 5 in The Boom Boom Room. We see a $15,000 pinky ring in Captain Canada's not-so-distant future, but the jury's still out on a championship ring.

Team: Detroit Lions
Sport: Football
Instagram: @reggiebush

Reggie Bush is lucky that he's built like a jacked mannequin. Even if he buys an Iron Wolf commemorative T-shirt at Six Flags Great America, it'll look immaculately tailored on his torso. Let this be a lesson to all you kids eBaying sneakers and playing Grant Theft Auto V all day: A man's best fashion accessory is an trim torso and shoulder workouts twice a week. That's seriously the best men's style advice you'll read all year. And, you're welcome.

Team: Miami Heat
Sport: Basketball
Instagram: @dwyanewade

As the longtime face of a banner franchise in Miami, Dwyane Wade dresses like a guy that knows his way around a bottle service menu. With pastel accents and just enough restrained weirdness, D-Wade represents the cocaine capital of the United States in a fittingly stylish way. Dude dresses a lot like Jon Hamm, if they funneled a case of 5-Hour Energy down the Mad Men star's throat and let him run wild in a Barneys New York with a Black Card. And we mean that as an absolute compliment.

Team: Buffalo Bills
Sport: Football
Instagram: @realbradsmith

Brad Smith gets about as much NFL action as we do, but—cot damn—if looking sharp in a suit were a sport this guy would be Art Monk. There's a reason ESPN invites this dude to the ESPYs and it has nothing to do with a nomination for "Best Male Athlete." That red carpet has Brian Wilson in a tuxedo body sock and a bunch of X-Games goons in jorts, so the Bills wide receiver is simply there to class up the joint.

Team: New York Knicks
Sport: Basketball

It's not easy to be well dressed when you're almost seven-feet-tall. Designers make clothes for waify models and little boy-children like Justin Bieber or Brad Pitt. When giant freaks of nature walk into your standard issue Club Monaco, they typically walk out with a more exaggerated pant break than Steve Urkel. Tyson Chandler should be applauded for making that look seem sophisticated and having the wherewithal to find slim fit chinos with a four-foot inseam.

Team: Los Angeles Clippers
Sport: Basketball
Instagram: @cp3

Leave it to the world's greatest lob passer to have one the most graceful looks in sports. Typically, when people move to Los Angeles, their wardrobe quickly becomes a vomitus cocktail of form-fitting v-necks and jeggings. Paul, much to his credit, hasn't been seen walking Ventura Boulevard in a pair of drop-crotch pants and a handful of avant-garde neck tattoos...yet. Keep it crispy, CP3.

Team: Fenerbahçe
Sport: Soccer (Süper Lig)
Instagram: @official_raul_meireles

We needed one dude that looks like a vegan rockstar with a violent criminal history because that shit is super in right now. Raul Meireles is pretty much the sartorial Travis Barker. This is the look you go for if you just sold your internet startup and you're trying to boink Katy Perry. Give it time, Raul. Give it time.

Team: New York Knicks
Sport: Basketball
Instagram: @teamswish

We're not sure how J.R. Smith survived stints in New Orleans and Denver because he belongs in a major market; one in which violating the league's drug policy only bolsters his personal brand. Swish has only been with the Knicks for a year and change, but he feels as much a part of the Madison Square Garden fabric as Spike Lee's courtside outbursts and losing in the playoffs. He's on some serious DGAF waves both on and off the court, and his style seems to be a calculated expression of that idiosyncratic behavior.

Team: Oklahoma City Thunder
Sport: Basketball
Instagram: @easymoneysniper

Kevin Durant walks a fine line between geek-chic and tacky Clark Kent who's overdosing on Trey Songz joints. He's leaning towards the stylish Napoloen Dynamite at the moment, but it's worth keeping an eye on. Ultimately, Duranchula is the best dressed of the NBA's flamboyant goofballs. Sure, he'll show up to a press conference inexplicably rocking a 40-liter backpack, but underneath the straps is a dope pea coat or otherwise stunt-worthy button-up.

Team: Los Angeles Dodgers
Sport: Baseball
Instagram: @bmdc27

If Bud Selig allowed it, Matt Kemp would roam the Dodger Stadium outfield in a cobalt blue cardigan and steal 40 bases per season in a pair of customized Tom Ford loafers. This guy is put together. In a sport where guys scratch themselves incessantly, cough up chewing tobacco in the on-deck circle, and consider mustard in their beard an everyday accessory, Kemp is a welcomed, incredibly stylish reprieve.

Team: Miami Heat
Sport: Basketball
Instagram: @kingjames

As interim director of the Illuminati, LeBron James could wear spandex jumpsuits from Nicki Minaj's K-Mart collection to post-game pressers and still get a pass. That said, The King mixes Marcelo Burlon t-shirts and tailored suit jackets the way he seamlessly blends a low-post presence with his perimeter game. Besides his personal look, LBJ also has arguable the cleanest line of signature sneakers in sports right now. This guy hasn't caught an "L" in years.

Team: N/A
Sport: Snowboarding/Skateboarding
Instagram: @shaunwhite

Extreme athletes, alongside MMA fighters, are some of the most horribly dressed people on the planet. It seems like Monster Energy Drink logos and blood stained graphic t-shirts are the only things that make sense to a person after they crack their cranium open on the asphalt for the 100th time. Shaun White, on the other hand, has enough Red Bull cash to dress like David Caruso playing the role of Jay Gatsby. This has to be the only guy on the planet that can perfectly flare out a pocket square and land a Kickflip McTwist.

Team: New York Knicks
Sport: Basketball
Instagram: @carmeloanthony

Paul George might be the NBA's most improved player, but no one's done as much to clean up his look as Carmelo Anthony. In the mid aughts, 'Melo was one of the drabbest looking dudes in the NBA, which is like being the most rawboned meth head in Florida. Anthony has some competition from his teammates on who's the most stylish Knick, but if he keeps showing up dressed like a Public School look from NYFW, he'll continue to claim that throne.

Team: Cleveland Cavaliers
Sport: Basketball
Instagram: @realtristan13

Tristan Thompson dresses like a lot of the NBA's ostentatious weirdoes try to dress, only he actually knows what he's doing. From his Balenciaga and Thom Browne looks on game day to the Givenchy and En Noir pieces that litter his Instagram feed, the Cavaliers' rising star has nothing left to prove in the wardrobe department.

Team: Oklahoma City Thunder
Sport: Basketball
Instagram: @russwest44

You mad? Look, if style is a means of self-expression, then Russell Westbrook is the most stylish player in the NBA. Sorry to burst your Gatorade commercial bubble, but sports are as much about brand building and entertainment as they are about winning and, like, determination or whatever. Russell Westbrook's on-court persona matches his off-court style to a science, which is especially impressive considering his chaotic identity.

If he were a backup center with Joe Flacco's personality, then Westbrook would be another clueless bozo with too much money to spend on flagrantly theatrical streetwear. As it is, dissing Westbrook's look is like telling Spiderman his kit is too tight or letting "Macho Man" Randy Savage know that he needs to cool it with the bandanas. Dude is not afraid to experiment and push boundaries, and that's a key component to being stylish.

Team: New York Rangers
Sport: Hockey
Instagram: @hank30nyr

Henrik Lundqvist dresses like a Dolce and Gabbana fragrance for men ad personified 24/7. When this guy's tired of playing goalie for the New York Rangers, he should just model high-end Ralph Lauren suits in spreads for high-end European magazines that aren't even available in America. We don't care if you work the counter at a Dunkin Donuts x Baskin Robbins hybrid; if you rip this guy's look, you will have a corner office and stock options within six weeks.

Team: New York Giants
Sport: Football
Instagram: @teamvic

When it comes to personal style amongst athletes, Victor Cruz has no competition. Since signing with the Giants as an undrafted free agent in 2010, Eli Manning's go-route of choice has been awarded "Most Stylish Athlete," cut the ribbon to kickoff New York Fashion Week 2012, and spends more time near the runway than most commercial pilots. From retro Jordans and Kith to crisp burgundy suits, this guy's range is unfuckwithable at the moment. He's taken the expertise he's garnered by chilling with bonafied style icons and even launched his own clothing line. Dude should be salsa dancing atop the sports fashion world for a while.