lockers designed for the pros: a look inside nba spaces
March Madness is over. After weeks of unexpected upsets and incredible shots, we’ve had to say goodbye to one of our favorite times of the year. But as one door closes, another opens and right now that door is the NBA playoffs. It’s time for the pros to take the stage and show ‘em how it’s done.
This year, we wanted to begin the playoffs celebration with a look behind the scenes of some of the most prestigious NBA teams' locker rooms and understand not only how they support their players on, but also off of the court. Equipment and facilities have become a huge focus over the past decade and now, more than ever, teams are sparing no expense to be sure they have the best and brightest of spaces for their players.
For professional players, it’s all about honoring their journey by giving them the tools they need to succeed. Here at SHIELD, we provide the lockers that allow them to stay organized and keep their belongings in top shape, that way they can worry about what’s really important - delivering fantastic plays every. single. game.
MOVING THE PROS FORWARD
In 2019, the Brooklyn Nets were looking to revamp their facilities and slated SHIELD as the designer for the lockers along with Dimensional Innovations and Generator Studios as the architect. Though the previous space had some amenities, waiting to renovate in sports can mean falling behind and then sprinting to catch up.
“You don’t want to fall behind,” said Joe Cuomo, Director of Equipment and Travel at the Brooklyn Nets. “You don’t want to be the team that doesn’t have the up-to-date amenities and standards. You’re always looking to improve and renovate in an appropriate amount of time.”
For the Nets, the renovation specifically focused on futuristic design. It can be common for refurbishments to only come around every decade or so, which means when creating your space, thinking into the future is a necessity. By forecasting trends and keeping up with other teams, you can know that your lockers and locker room won’t be old hat by next year.
"It's like walking into your closet in the year 2046... it's unlike anything i've seen around the league," said Kristian Winfield from ESPN about the new and improved Nets locker room.
Though professional teams aren’t looking to recruit in traditional terms, these facilities can still convey to competitors that they mean business.
“It can be a recruitment tool, in a non-traditional sense,” said Cuomo. “The opposing players don’t necessarily see the locker room, but they do practice at our facility. So in a subtle way, other teams do see the aesthetics of the building and what we have done.”
Within these spaces, the locker room can often be the heart and soul of the team. Where every player begins and ends practices or games means camaraderie is built and relationships are boosted. In the past few years, locker rooms have been getting the same treatment as every other part of a facility. Making sure only the highest quality equipment is installed. That’s where we come in.
brooklyn nets locker room reveal
WHAT MAKES A PROFESSIONAL LOCKER?
Great Question.
For Max Reza, Director of Team Operations at the LA Clippers, it’s all about functionality first and then finishing with stellar aesthetics.
“I think a large difference between professional and college lockers is that with the pros, you need a little more function,” said Reza. “You need a locker that is spacious and has all of the necessary pieces to properly accommodate your player.”
A recurring partner of SHIELD, the Clippers first redesigned their lockers within Crypto.com Arena (then Staple's Center) in 2016 to reach the caliber of the athletes and boost team unification along with Gensler as the architect. In one of the fastest timelines SHIELD has worked under to-date, the lockers were designed and installed within 60 days to meet the needs of the team.
In 2019 we installed new lockers into the Clippers training center, Honey Training Center. Now in the midst of a rebrand, the Clippers have once again asked us to create lockers for their space that match the goals of their shifting brand identity and fits with the new Intuit Dome, teaming up with AECOM.
“Everything we did for this project was based on monitoring our players and their trends,” said Reza. “How many shoes do they have? Where do they like to place their clothes? How do they like things arranged? We took all of those ideas and then modeled a locker that would actually help our players.”
As a locker manufacturer, we also monitor our jobs in order to provide the most up-to-date locker information with State of the Locker. Through this process, Shield is able to provide top of the line design to teams like the Clippers who are looking to completely revamp their image.
But why rebrand? For the Clippers, they knew it was time. With their old logo often being panned as “bland” or “generic,” the team wanted to move in a more serious direction, but keep the flair.
Named in 1978 after the move from Buffalo to San Diego, the team chose Clippers after the clipper ships often seen in the bay. Though now in Los Angeles, the team holds it’s origins close to their heart and wanted to see that vision through within the re-brand for the logo and the lockers.
Now the logo takes inspiration directly from the clipper ship and the lockers take a few of those notes as well.
“We definitely encouraged the architects to incorporate basketball and our brand into the design,” said Reza. “For us, we included that nautical clippers theme in there but we did it with small, thoughtful and artistic touches.”
la clippers updated logo
To Reza, when creating professional sporting lockers, it’s all about owning your designs and being honest about what can be done.
“Honesty throughout the process is so important,” said Reza. “We want a manufacturer that is honest about what they can actually do, not over promising or under delivering. With SHIELD there’s ownership throughout the lifecycle of the lockers and that partnership is really enjoyable. There’s genuine care and they’re always looking for ways to improve.”
meeting player needs
As a locker manufacturer, ultimately we are creating for the player. Having a good looking locker room can be great for media shots and showcasing your branding to the world, but if your players aren’t happy with the way the product functions, it hasn’t met its goal.
Players aren’t always naturally organized or perfectly clean, so having a piece of equipment with drawers and compartments for all of their items can mean giving them peace of mind off the court.
“A lot of these guys aren’t super neat and so by having a structured locker with multiple compartments, drawers, hooks and hanging bars… All of that allows you to help them have an organized locker,” said Cuomo.
There is also a heavy emphasis on making sure these pro level players are being given the respect and utilities they deserve for their journey to the top.
“That’s one of our guiding principles,” said Reza. “These players have worked so hard to get to this level, so let’s honor that with a very nice facility where they feel like they have their own dedicated space. We want them to have a workspace they can be proud of.”
what comes next?
It seems clear that as functionality grows within locker design, technology and ways to make using the piece more convenient will also become commonplace. Many teams are now moving to paperless operations and would like their teams lockers to include the tech that can help them flow through the day.
"You want to be able to go paperless for everything," said Reza. "You want to be able to change things electronically. There's so much information and things change daily for us, sometimes even hourly. You want to be able to effectively communicate to your players in a quick timeline."
Teams are also looking to be able to welcome in new athletes and say goodbye to ones that are leaving without needing to buy new nameplates or supplies. As the number of players teams can have gets larger, there is more of a need to make lockers quickly and easily able to update.
"Our rosters keep getting bigger and bigger so that is a definite challenge when it comes to figuring out what you can do with a given space," said Cuomo.
Ultimately, teams need lockers that will provide their players simple storage that requires minimal thought so the players can focus on their actual job of bringing fire to the court every day.
Locker room design is one of the major cornerstones in training, recruiting, performance, and recovery. It’s one of the major places where organizations can showcase their efforts to identify player and coaching needs. Make sure that whatever your next locker rooms ends up becoming, It starts by listening to current players and staff and bringing their ideas to the table.