Lindor a serious student of the fashion game

NEW YORK -- In the ranks of Major League Baseball, there are players who -- quite literally -- wear the same T-shirt every day. There are players whose style might change imperceptibly from week to week, but never all that far from center.

Then there are players like Francisco Lindor. One day earlier this season, Lindor wore a tie-dyed pink-and-orange sweatshirt to Citi Field, matching it with a khaki pair of pants. In London, he marched around town in a unique black leather jacket. A week later, he dabbled in bright green.

Upon joining the Mets back in 2021, Lindor immediately dyed his hair blue. Later that spring, he came into possession of the Mets jacket that comedian Eddie Murphy wore in “Coming to America” and wore it around the team’s training complex.

Few if any MLB athletes care more about fashion than Lindor, who is constantly swapping out his looks.

“It shows that athletes have more to them than whatever their sport is,” said Allen Oniya, Lindor’s personal stylist over the last two years. “They’re looking for ways to communicate different things. For a lot of athletes, fashion is the next thing. It’s the thing that a lot of times is the most relatable for them. Especially Francisco -- he loves colors, he loves to experiment, he loves to try new things. So it’s very refreshing to see that.”

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For Lindor, fashion is an art that’s always been part of his life. Growing up with three sisters, two of whom were older than him, the Lindor children would frequently play dress-up around the house. Far from a begrudging participant, Lindor enjoyed the games and began developing a keen interest in clothes.

As he grew older and became a professional athlete, Lindor began realizing that he had both the money and the platform to begin exploring fashion with more depth. So he did. Lindor’s first big splash was with New Balance, a sneaker company that allowed him to design his own shoe -- the Lindor 1s, which launched in 2021. A newer version followed last year, and on any given day, Lindor’s locker is filled with boxes of the shoes in all colors of the rainbow.

Nearly as varied are Lindor’s gloves, which range in color and, last year, included one designed by Gucci.

But Lindor’s fashion interests extend well beyond the playing field. Two years ago, when he was invited to be a presenter at Premio Lo Nuestro, an annual Spanish-language music awards show in Miami, he wanted to find a stylist to help him dress for the event. Alan Suriel, the Mets’ interpreter and a confidant of Lindor’s, put him in touch with Oniya, a former fashion blogger who has helped dress athletes such as Russell Westbrook, Rudy Gobert, DeAndre Hopkins and Jamal Adams.

“He’s been fantastic,” Lindor said. “He helps me understand textures and colors, how to put silhouettes together. That’s been a big help.”

Oniya’s job is to bring ideas to Lindor, who either accepts them, rejects them or expands upon them. It’s an open conversation between two people with similar styles: loud and colorful is the ideal, but also refined.

“If we’re looking through pieces, the first thing we kind of say to ourselves is, ‘Does this have the edge that we’re looking for?’” Oniya said. “And if it does, then the next thing is, ‘Now, does it have the refinement? Is it clean?’ He’s been moving toward this clean and edgy look. If you’ve been following his style as of late, I think we’ve been doing a great job of executing that and kind of telling his story.”

Often, Lindor looks to the NBA for inspiration. He has long admired Dwyane Wade’s sense of style, and he considers that league a showcase for athlete fashion. Among baseball players, Lindor remains relatively unique. While several of Lindor’s teammates -- most notably Starling Marte, who once wore an off-white blazer over his bare chest as he walked down the All-Star Game red carpet in 2022 -- enjoy dressing up, none take it as seriously as Lindor.

Already with a foothold in the fashion world thanks to his partnerships with New Balance and Oakley, Lindor likes the idea of becoming more involved in the industry’s creative process once he retires from baseball. What form that might take, he isn’t totally sure, but it’s an arena in which he’ll always have interest.

In the interim, he figures to continue swapping out jackets, pants, vests, shirts, shoes, gloves, hairstyles, hair colors and more, constantly in search of that perfect look. Or at the least, of something bold and different that others want to emulate.

“I think it makes the game bigger, because now you tap into the fashion industry, and you can get more fans through that alley,” Lindor said. “I’m not sure if kids are saying, ‘Oh, Francisco dresses pretty cool. I want to play baseball because Francisco dresses pretty cool.’ I think they’re seeing more of the on-field stuff. I think they see the hair, I think they see the cleats, I think they see the gloves, I think they see the bat. And I think that I know definitely has an impact on how they want to dress up on the field.”