The newest member of the Phoenix Suns has always had excellent taste. Now he’s a Calvin Klein model.
ByMatthew Roberson
September 4, 2025
Jalen Green on His Calvin Klein Underwear Campaign “I Can Be a Killer on the Court and Then Kill It In the Fashion World...
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For Jalen Green, the 2024-25 NBA season was full of major accomplishments. The 23-year-old high flyer got his first taste of the playoffs and connected on 35% of his three pointers for the first time in his career. Now, he’s ticking another significant box on the to-do list. These days, it’s not enough for a soaring, vibrant young player to just pop off on the court. In order to really leave an impact on the culture, they also need to make waves in the fashion game, which is why Green partnered with Calvin Klein.
Gordon von Steiner
In June, perched high above New York City in a sprawling, industrial studio space, with Frank Ocean, Beyoncé, and Kendrick blaring over the speakers, Green breaks it all down for me. He’s just wrapped his photo shoot, which, because this is Calvin Klein, meant doing a lot of posing in his underwear. Stripping to his skivvies and having hundreds of photos taken was a first for Green, who slowly became acclimated to the experience as morning turned to afternoon.
“During the fitting, when I was trying underwear on, there was mad people there, just looking at me in my underwear,” Green says with a grin. “It was a little nerve wracking. But as we went through the day today, I got used to it.” (He also mentions that no extra ab workouts were required to get camera ready for the shirtless photos, although he did consider doing some.)
Gordon von Steiner
Green—who’s also worked with Stone Island and Adidas, but never before had to get down to his drawers—understands the power of teaming up with a virtuosic brand like Calvin Klein. It now gives him an off-court fashion portfolio that matches the way he feels about his on-court prowess. “I can be a killer on the court, and then kill it in the fashion world too,” he says. “Calvin Klein? This is a good milestone in my fashion career.”
The swagged out shooting guard tells me that in the current NBA landscape, players are absolutely keeping tabs on the clothes their fellow hoopers are wearing. Whether it’s a tunnel fit, something they wore to dinner, or a look they threw together for Instagram, there’s a game within the game. Everyone is trying to dress to impress. “You got to see what statement everybody’s trying to make,” is how Green puts it.
Since entering the league as a 19-year-old in 2021, Green has had a reputation as one of basketball’s best dressed. It’s not just the garments he picks out, though. Green was painting his nails before his Gen Z comrades Caleb Williams and Jared McCain made nail polish the hottest accessory out, and Green has also been known to toggle between hairstyles, typically rocking braids but also occasionally letting his curls out. He tells me that those days are over, though. “You’re not going to see curls on the court [anymore],” he says.
Gordon von Steiner
One month after our conversation, news broke that Green had been traded. The Houston Rockets sent their dynamic scorer to the Phoenix Suns in a massive swap that brought Kevin Durant to H-Town, closing the book on Green’s time with the upstart Rockets, who surged to 52 wins and the Western Conference’s second seed before falling to Steph Curry and the Warriors in a seven-game playoff battle.
Though he doesn’t know at the time that he’ll later be moving to the desert, Green offers some thoughts to me on how he can improve next season, which will be his fifth in the NBA. “You know, everything's a learning process,” he says. “You got to take everything day by day, brick by brick. And most of all, just things I need to work on, things I need to focus on, learn to improve the next year, the mentality I need to have, the work I need to put in.”
Gordon von Steiner
As he shifts into basketball mode again after the offseason, Green must now acclimate to his new team but also all of the body maintenance needed to withstand an 82-game grind. That means cold plunges, which are part of his routine. In fact, while we talk, he’s drying off after taking a series of photos in a full-body ice bath. Green is usually just a hips-down guy, so doing a full submerge was a change of pace. All part of the territory for someone who’s positioned himself as one of the flyest dudes in the NBA and now has the brand backing to go with it.
“I’m still shivering,” Green said just before we part ways. “I do cold plunges, but I don’t cold plunge like that, though. Got to do it for Calvin.”