Dime & Dress Codes

Today on my way back from the dentists (attempt 2 joy) I stopped in at borders to see that Slam magazine had updated again as had Dime magazine - the basketballer's lifestyle magazine. Basketballer lifestyle seems to differ from AFL players lifestyle and soccer players lifestyle (based on topgears cool rules for cars) in that within their own culture they seem to be regarded as tasteful.
Painful catchphrases like bling and shit aside a basketballer seems to be able to dress themselves and still be cool, have hot partners that are respected and so fourth in contrast to AFL players whose brownlow event is the fashion node of the calander year.
But what NBA and AFL have in common is commisioners who both have a shared stupidity in the 'professionalism' of dress codes. So as I was picking up Dime magazine and leafing through it today I was surprised to read the comment by a ball player 'I've always demanded respect... I was wearing suits to games before the dress code.'
I think this is one of the worst comments ever. The only one that's worse is possibly Charles Oakley's take on the dress codes:
'Allen Iverson has been playing for ten years and he's still wearing a t-shirt to games...grow up already' liberal paraphrasing aside this is just a stupid arguement.
I believe the players are paid to play basketball, and so long as they play fucking basketball they are professional. Anything else is just fluff.
Jordan wore suits to games because he wanted to cultivate an image, he was leveraging off a perception that people wore suits to work and as such used the suit as a symbol to people that he played basketball like he was going to work.
And maybe it worked, but that is an individuals choice. Allen Iverson has an equal right to express that he is a gangsta, playing for his homies, or that he is a warrior or for whatever reason.
Just as any other player should have the right to feel comfortable turning up in a tracksuit.
For the record I think dress codes are bullshit in the office. Any justification is weak. Particularly since Gen Y seems to have figured out that for the investment of time required in a full time job, it should, nay must be a fun fucking job to take it in the first place, otherwise it aint worth the investment of time in our brief brief lives.
And I have to say, I seem to get promoted with greater regularity than my dressier counterparts, just like I can easily recall Allen Iverson's name but can't recall the guy in the Dime Article.
People often cop out and say to me (I kid you not) 'Oh but the rules don't apply to you tohm because you're clever, other people have to play the game' but in essence I dress down because I am playing the game, other people do play the game but they play the losing hand.
There are some concessions, like your choice in dress should acknowledge the power relationship, a salesman can't deny the power a customer has. And that's about it, if you can live with a conservative culture, and more importantly have fun in one then stick with it loser but I just wouldn't tolerate that, I've got better fucking things to spend not just time on, but contribute the value I have to.
Coming back to wearing a suit = demanding respect. Maybe it does but in marketing speak we call that 'Look at me' which is a market segmentation models, generally 'Visable Achievers' are high achievers with high sense of self esteem, thus don't need recognisable brands or imagery to validate their achievement, a hard category for marketers to reach. 'Look at me's' can be successful but have low self esteem thus seek approval from almost everyone through easily recognisable brands and imagery, they consume fast cars, nice suits and 'bling' in a conspicuous and pitiful way.
And that is who you are essentially when you 'demand' respect by wearing a suit. Or in Eddie Macguire's case hand out 'respect' in the form of Versace/Armani/Cocktard suits to players. I mean you could look at the accursed Collingwood in an exercise in mixed message marketing, about the only blue collared sponser is McDonalds and they still equate to big money in the mind. Then there's the luxary brands Lexus and Emirates Airlines (the UAE oil money always speaks of excess) and semantically you are left with nothing but hypocrisy. Eddie has taken the 'Love them or you hate them' mentality and amplified it. As opposed to North Melbourne's 'Shinboner' strategy which is to take a quality of determination that almost any old club has and give it a name and own it. Now everybody respects the roos and they perform arguably better than collingwood with all its lavish facilities and advantages.

I own cufflinks, I even wear them, but the time they take to put in and take out, their natural lack of balance and need for specific shirts means I almost never wear them. They don't speak of efficiency to me, and efficiency is professional. I kind of look at any athlete turning up in evening wear to go to a match and wonder what merit spending 40 minutes dressing to the nines and then going and spending 20 minutes changing at a venue into comfortable breathable playing gear could possibly have. Keeping in mind the added stress of folding and hanging all the good threads as you change. I wonder what psychological edge it gives a guy like AI to just turn up in something comfortable.