Growing up, Lazar Hayward remembers gravitating toward brands like Iceberg. Seeing Nas, Raekwon, and Jay-Z rock tees and knit sweaters with Snoopy, Mickey Mouse, and Popeye on it seemed so easy-going hip-hop. He would tag along with his dad on weekend trips to the city, where they would travel through New York’s fashion district and fill five hockey bags with pieces, then parade them around his father’s flea market stalls. When she wanted to develop sophistication, she had sneaked into her father’s closet and grabbed one of his many silk shirts. Red, brown, white, dark, black; The perfect set of primary colors was at Hayward’s fingertips.
“I’d take all the joints, throw them right in my bag, and he’d get mad,” Hayward says with a laugh.
Blending its streetwear origins with haute couture has become the foundation of the 2020 Nobel clothing brand Hayward. Now Hayward finds himself on the other side of the coin. Last year, the Las Vegas Summer League sold out of exclusive Nobel shorts. Since then, everyone from current NBA players to the NBPA have been hitting it up in hopes of getting their hands on the next drop.
After a four-year career at Marquette, the All-Big East selection in the first round of the 2010 NBA Draft capped a seven-year career between the L and G Leagues. After quietly retiring from professional basketball, Hayward began looking for another way to channel his expression.
“And I was like. fashion I don’t have to put my name on it, I don’t really care about putting my face on it,” Hayward tells SLAM. “Nobel, I chose that name for a reason because there was a lot of stupid things going on and I just thought that being a Nobel, even though you have a lot of things going on in your life, you can still do the right thing. I just needed a constant reminder, and that’s why the Nobel came in.”
When Hayward started the brand four years ago, he envisioned pieces of clothing that told a story by gelling the energy of the street with ineffable elegance. She cites everything from Chanel to the way we post photos in our magazine as visions of her inspiration.
Infused with Hayward’s love of Roman numerals and vintage architecture, Nobel captures an elegant edge through distorted florals and archaic details. From bright colors and pastel palettes to subtle aesthetics and angles, Havayard has created his own form of elegance through Nobel.
As Hayward worked tirelessly through the early stages of the brand’s development, the NBPA took notice, inviting the founder to join the union’s Players Accelerator program. During the 2020 pilot, Hayward attended every seminar and panel he could attend. His persistent commitment has resulted in continued collaboration within the program.
For the past two years, Nobel has been working with the Las Vegas Summer League Players Association. In 2022, Hayward produced event-exclusive paddles with Roman numerals depicting the founding year of the NBPA-1954. Along with various NBPA member brands last year, Nobel returned to Las Vegas, where the brand sold an updated crop of designs at PA’s first-ever pop-up retail experience.
“For me, everything is organic, everything. I really stand by it. No matter how long it takes, even with the money, the business, all of that, I just want it to be organic,” Hayward tells SLAM.
The latest showcase continued this past All-Star weekend when we teamed up with Hayward and Noble for a collaborative line of heavy duty cleats, fusing our two brands’ undying passion for the game and its intersection with fashion. Reflecting the success of the NBPA pop-up in Vegas, two of the three pieces of the capsule were sold by the end of Saturday. Don’t worry, we still have sizes in this part crisp white tea.
Ever since he left the hardwood and entered the outlet of his own imagination, Lazar Hayward has created a clear line of creative expression to roam free. His journey, like countless other players, has become a blueprint for the current generation of would-be entrepreneurs. He sends bundles of yarn to the league’s brightest stars, researches fabrics deep in the factories of Los Angeles, collaborates with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves and sells pop-up venues. While he hasn’t yet gotten his hands on the 2023 Summer League sold-out shorts, he’ll be back in Vegas this summer with a new collection.
“Though this time I’ll bring myself a little bit,” laughs Hayward.
Photos via Lazar Hayward.
