Tennis fashion no longer has a monopoly of sports brands

It’s hard to believe, but any sport is becoming less and less interesting in terms of spectacle. In fact, all the elements have already been invented and performed, records have been set, athletes fight literally for fractions of seconds and centimeters. But if you try to look at it from the point of view of a person who is not into sports, there is nothing radically new.

Together with the stylist we will talk about the links between fashion and sports and why tennis clothes have settled in our everyday closet.

stylist

Why do streetwear brands contract and collaborate with big-name athletes? It’s probably all to do with the fact that tennis has been surprisingly gaining momentum and capturing new audiences in recent years.

Why brands are interested in tennis

The athlete himself is more interesting: his stories of victories and defeats, injuries and recoveries are often much more interesting than movies about the future. Therefore, the man himself becomes a good advertising platform. What do we mean by that? It’s simple: athletes are opinion leaders. Fans follow their performances, personal life, try to imitate their lifestyle and buy the same things as their idols.

Marketers realize that sports is an interesting advertising market. Especially with the development of television broadcasting – it’s become easier and cheaper for brands to get airtime on a TV channel, which means more people will see the ads. And as a result, more sales. Everything in our world is based on money. It’s a fact.

Over the last few years, street wear brands have achieved great development in the world of sports. The general interest in various brand collaborations helped tennis to get to the top of the ranking of the most fashionable sports. This was reported by the analytical platform Lyst, summarizing the results of 2018: the number of fashion queries with the word “tennis” increased by 59%, and tennis skirts, dresses and shorts were among the most requested items that year.

Street wear (streetwear) was a byproduct of several American subcultures of the 60s and 70s: surfing, skateboarding and hip-hop. They mandated that their followers wear comfortable, lightweight and branded clothing, whether it be stretchy T-shirts, wide jeans, size-less bombers or athletic shorts.

Since athletes are people too, they need something to wear outside of arenas, stadiums and training halls, and streetwear is comfortable and practical, the choice was obvious. Almost immediately, the question arose: can you add that same comfort to your sportswear? And the brands answered – yes.

How tennis players used to dress

Tennis uniforms were constantly changing. People played in the clothes that were current – first long-sleeved shirts and pants for men and a long dress with a corset for women. Fortunately, such uniforms did not last long. Girls tennis players were offered to replace dresses with bloomer-type suits – short skirts and puffy pantaloons.

It is also known from history that in 1919 there was the first scandal about the appearance of one of the tennis players: 20-year-old Frenchwoman Suzanne Lenglen appeared at Wimbledon in an unusual outfit for that time: an ordinary T-shirt with short sleeves, pleated skirt and a panama. The media labeled Lenglen’s image as “indecent”, which had no effect on her game – Suzanne went on to win the Wimbledon Championships, the French Open and three medals at the Olympic Games.

Which brands are represented in tennis today

Lacoste, Fred Perry, Polo Ralph Lauren and Sergio Tacchini – these are the brands that were at the origin of tennis fashion and had a certain monopoly on the sport.

Later on, Nike, adidas and other sports companies started to create tennis divisions, but their “tennis shoes” did not arouse much interest among people. This continued until recently, when leading streetwear brands got into the game. There are tons of examples of collaborations, we’ll take a look at just a few.

Serena Williams x Off-White

Serena Williams caught the world’s attention with an exclusive Queen Collection capsule created especially for her by Virgil Abloh (American fashion designer and clothing designer who is the artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear and creator of the Off-White streetwear brand).

The American designed not only Serena’s playing uniform, but also Off-White’s leather outerwear kit. The Queen Collection capsule itself looked more like a ballet tutu with a “swoosh”, and most importantly – it was different from everything that other brands had previously done for tennis fashion. Serena’s look was completed with exclusive Nike x Off-White sneakers.

stylist

When it comes to tennis and the attention from streetwear and luxury brands that cling to the sport – the campaign with Serena and Off-White was a one-off. Virgil had another lookbook coming out, and featuring the sneakers on such a significant player in an elite sport was the perfect infomercial to highlight the collection.

Roger Federer X Uniqlo

An undoubtedly high-profile event in the world of tennis fashion was Roger Federer’s move from Nike to Uniqlo. It is known from open sources that Federer signed a long-term contract for 10 years and will receive from the Japanese mass-market $ 300 million.

The uniforms for Roger were designed by Christophe Lemaire, creative director of Hermès and part-time chief designer of the Uniqlo U line.

stylist

Uniqlo signed a 10-year contract with Federer in order to PR their sportswear line. Since the Japanese have always had a good basic range of things, they decided a few years ago to add sportswear. However, they don’t really have it developed, unfortunately.

Supreme alliances with Lacoste and Wilson

Supreme brand, inspired by tennis, made a collaboration with the oldest brand Lacoste, and also released a set of accessories for the game with the most famous manufacturer of tennis products – Wilson.

A year later, a tennis capsule with Wilson was presented by the Japanese streetwear brand BAPE. Branded camo-print and gorilla outlines were applied to T-shirts, caps and rackets. Models with all sorts of logos and camouflage colors sold out very well. The point of these unions was to bring sports culture, youth and streetwear culture together.

stylist

There’s a rapid generational change in players because two of the Big Three are out with injuries. It’s a great opportunity to get a new and young audience. This is exactly where Uniqlo, Off-White, BAPE and Palace come in. All those who weren’t really connected to the sport thought, “Oh, tennis, let’s try to tap into that niche and do something cool.” Brands saw a great opportunity to jump on the hype wave. Hence all the streetwear collabs in tennis.