VanVleet fits Raps to a T
Backup point guard is making his own brand fashionable
PHOENIX— Big Baller Brand, the entrepreneurial organ of infamous basketball father LaVar Ball, made noise in the Big Apple this week.
On the occasion of son Lonzo Ball’s Madison Square Garden debut as starting point guard of the Los Angeles Lakers, the brand launched a midtown popup shop that drew long lineups and plenty of media attention.
It was the kind of hubhub Fred VanVleet could respect. The Raptors’ secondyear backup point guard runs his own independent lifestyle brand of athletic wear. Considerably less publicized than BBB, VanVleet’s FVV line of T-shirts and hats aspires to bigger things.
“(Big Baller Brand) is doing it on a much larger scale than me right now,” VanVleet was saying Wednesday. “I probably wouldn’t do the antics and be as loud (as LaVar Ball). But that’s just personal preference. I don’t have anything against those guys. I’m into that — personal entrepreneurship. I try to root for anybody who’s brave enough to go out there and do it.”
The 23-year-old VanVleet said he started his personal brand, complete with a stylish FVV logo that’s reminiscent of Vince Carter’s long-ago VC15 ensign, after he grew tired of spending money on designer streetwear from fancy foreign manufacturers.
“The way we live in the NBA, we spend a lot of money on stupid (stuff ). If I’m going to buy a $1,000 T-shirt from Gucci, that’s 100 T-shirts I could make on my own,” VanVleet said.
“The business is great. I’m just taking my time, going really slow. I don’t want to take too big of a loss, but most businesses lose in the first year, and I’m making a decent amount of money. It’s been going good for me.”
VanVleet’s on-court business is positively booming this year. Thanks to an injury to backup point guard Delon Wright, VanVleet, known for his dogged, high-IQ reliability, has emerged as a go-to option off the bench.
He’s the six-foot engine that drives Toronto’s oft-heralded second unit.
Big picture, Toronto’s reserves have been one of the key stories of the team’s early-season success; the bench’s net rating — a combination of its offensive and defensive prowess — ranks third in the league behind the reserves from Houston and Golden State.
Small picture, as in Monday’s loss to the L.A. Clippers and Sunday’s win in Sacramento, the second unit’s work has taken a momentary dip.
Toronto’s bench performers combined for a dismal 17 points on Monday, a day after they shot a combined 38% against the Kings. Toronto coach Dwane Casey suggested his faith in the group — a five-man unit that lately has included VanVleet, C.J. Miles, Jakob Poeltl, Norman Powell and Pascal Siakam — isn’t unconditional.
“Unfortunately (when the second unit isn’t performing) we have to get Kyle or DeMar back in there to give us some stability and some scoring and some experience in that group, which we don’t like to do and we don’t want to do. But at some point we may have to do that,” Casey said. “But again, we’re going to sink or swim with the young guys. We love ’em. They’ve got a bright future. But understand that there’s going to be certain situations where we may have to put a veteran back in there with ’em to stabilize the situation.”
Miles, for his part, said the advanced scouting report is out on the Raptors’ backups; he’s noticed opposing teams “on high alert” for Toronto’s reserves.
“You’ve got (an opposing team) that’s told for the last couple of days that the best bench in the league is coming into the gym, they get hyped up for us,” Miles said.
“It’s been a couple of times the other bench is so hyped up, they’ve hit us in the mouth first a couple times. We’ve been the team coming out swinging (previously) . . . now we’re trying to overthink it a bit.”
Lowry, for his part, suggested the bench’s recent struggles amount to “a blip on the monitor” in a long season.
“You’re not always going to be the greatest player or the greatest second unit or the greatest starting unit every single night,” Lowry said. “You’re going to have blips and I think the second unit, they’ll find it. It’s like me, I’ll find it.”
VanVleet said the search for consistency, as a young player, comes down to personal accountability.
“As good as we’ve been, we kind of set the standard high for ourselves. We’ve got to live up to that every night,” he said. “Each guy himself has just got to look at himself in the mirror and be better then next time out.”
As an undrafted prospect from Wichita State who has found a regular role in the NBA, VanVleet knows a thing or two about selfreliance.
In the creation of his T-shirt business, though, he enlisted help. He partnered with Rockford Art Deli, another lifestyle brand from his hometown of Rockford, Ill., that VanVleet says handles the manufac- ture of the FVV product line.
The rest of the operation is run by a close circle of friends and family, with merchandise available at fvv23.com.
“My girlfriend is kind of our manager, and my cousin is doing our operations as far as shipping and packaging. And we’ve got a little team of creative, which is me and my cousin and my best friend,” VanVleet said.
“I figured, I’m not going to wait around for one of the big companies to do a thing with me — I’m just going to do it on my own.”
Nobody is going to confuse FVV with BBB. But in business, as in basketball, VanVleet said he’s experiencing slow and steady growth fuelled by a can-do spirit and a fierce self-belief.
“But it’s not even about the money, because it’s not substantial right now,” he said. “It’s about the lifestyle, the culture.
“I know I’ve inspired a lot of my friends to go and do their own things, and that’s the mantra of what I’m trying to do. That’s kind of my little thing, ‘Bet on yourself.’ That’s just my personality. I’ve always had to get it the hard way, the long way, and I’ve had to be my own biggest fan at times to work my way up to where I am today. Who I am as a person makes me into who I am as a player.”