Recently, we’ve seen tons of unexpected tennis brand collabs, drops, and fashion-focused events like Miu Miu’s West Side Tennis Club takeover. It gave life to what was initially a rather monotonous playing field.” It was a different game, just like how Jordan changed the landscape of basketball wear, those brands, especially Nike Court and the Agassi collections, drive tennis streetwear. “Not to be a generalist, but no matter what any designer says, that era is where inspiration is where tennis fashion derived from. “If we are going to be real, tennis fashion peaked in the late ’80s and ’90s, Nike Court, Le Coq Sportif, Adidas, Fila… the list goes on,” says David Gill, founder of the small brand Tennis Grip. However, the ’70s weren’t the only decade that inspired brands to pop up with a new design approach. “He wove color into his looks in an incredible way in a sport that is very whitewashed - an apt metaphor given his status as the first Black man to win Wimbledon and the U.S. “Arthur Ashe had an incredible sense of style, and his career spanned the clean-cut ‘60s through the flashy, rebellious ’70s,” says Carlson. The brand was founded by Carlson, who also founded Rowing Blazers, and Kith alum Karl-Raphael Blanchard - both streetwear savants - and the pair were inspired to break tradition and provide a new take on tennis style, following Ashe’s lead. It was a great time for tennis fashion,” says Jack Carlson, creative director of Arthur Ashe - a new brand, not the legendary tennis player.Īrthur Ashe is a great example of a new tennis brand taking aspects of the past and broadening to a contemporary audience. The ’70s had so many iconic and stylish players: Borg, Vilas, McEnroe, and, of course, Ashe.
The court jester tennis professional#
“In terms of what professional tennis players wear on the court, unfortunately, I don’t think it’s as fun or as interesting as the ’70s. We’ve seen this in the surge of tennis popularity throughout the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, when superstars like Arthur Ashe, Andre Agassi, and Martina Hingis introduced new outfits to the sport, which created a demand for tennis fashion brands to innovate. Interest in heritage brands like Lacoste, Ralph Lauren, and Wilson have greatly jumped in August alone. According to Depop, searches increased by 218% for “tennis polo” between March and July, while searches for the “tennis shirt” also peaked in July, increasing by 157% since the beginning of 2022. With the help of quarantine, it became a popular social distance sport in 2020, and what to wear while playing has been on the top of everyone’s search queries lately. Tennis is gaining its footing as a leader in professional sports. With these new icons breaking the mold and popularizing their on-court ’fits, brands are changing how they approach tennis fashion. Nick Kyrgios, the sport’s court jester, almost beat the stiff and traditional Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final, while American Frances Tiafoe is bringing back electric showmanship comparable to Jimmy Connors. Open will likely be Serena Williams’ last tournament as Naomi Osaka makes her return. He serves and squeals like Maria Sharapova.If you are a stranger to the world of tennis these days, let’s catch you up. He gets his hair just right and starts bouncing the ball from above his eyeline. He sashays to the baseline and dances on his toes again, head tilted to the right. He adjusts the strings on his racquet for longer than required. We were able secure his appearance last October, when his ranking was 12 in the world - but even then, we were conscious that very few Aussies knew who he was."Įxample 3 of Djokovic taking the Mickey Bliss: He bounces on his toes at the back of the court with his back to his opponent. Three years later, Mark Woodforde and I were chasing him trying to get him as a headline attraction for the 2007 event. "We rejected the request as we were looking to provide the Aussies with the wildcard opportunities. "Three years ago, we received a request from Dejan Petrovic - a South Australian who is now captain of the Serbian Davis Cup team - for a qualifying wildcard for Novak," Johnston says.
Peter Johnston is the tournament director who lured Djokovic to play the ATP's Next Generation Adelaide International in January.
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