Let's talk about tennis shirts

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🎾 Ugo Humbert vs Carlos Alcaraz

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I think it's time we talk about tennis shirts. This week, at the Paris ATP, the news is how well the French tennis players are doing, as several have reached the round of 16 after many years of drought. On the cover of L’Equipe, they proudly displayed the five Frenchmen who achieved this feat, noting that four of them were wearing the exact same Lacoste shirt.

Manna 🇫🇷 / Thompson
Fils 🇫🇷/ Zverev
Cazaux 🇫🇷/ Rune
Rinder 🇫🇷/ Dimitrov
Humbert 🇫🇷/ Alcaraz

Not a single French favorite today, who do you think will surprise? pic.twitter.com/k4TBkfmqOP

— Bujol (@BenjolATP) October 31, 2024

Lack of Creativity

We all agree that the creativity and innovation departments of clothing brands in the tennis world have a lot of room for improvement. For many years, we have seen how the designs have been dull and boring. Rarely have we desired to buy a shirt we saw on the court. Styles that resemble past years, unremarkable and unattractive. Quite difficult.

In this century, Nike stood out among other brands by signing Sampras and Agassi as great ambassadors. They were the top rivals on the court and the ones who played the most finals. Everywhere you looked, you always saw Nike. They knew how to move perfectly to do the same with the next two protagonists of the great rivalry of the time, Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal. Nike strolled for many years being the most famous brand in the entire circuit by those who wore it.

That ugly ending they had with Roger is in the past. The Swiss's contract with the famous American brand ended, and he wanted to participate in the design of his shirts, something Nike did not view favorably. "The design looks like a truck ran over them,” Federer once said about Nike, which affected their relationship, leading the Swiss to eventually move to Uniqlo. A farewell that hurt many fans. Hard to understand why Roger wasn't a figure like Jordan is for the brand today.

Rafa, however, remained with Nike from start to finish. With him, we have seen some more attractive designs, especially in his final tour before retiring. His shirts in his last tournaments, like at Roland Garros or his last participation in Arabia, have been highly praised. Nadal is an exception, something we don't see as often with Sinner or Alcaraz, the next two in line.

Nike moved well again to sign the two future tennis stars. The problem is that, once again, the lack of creativity leads them to give them clothes that seem like a redesign from the past, as is the case with Jannik, the only one who, so far, has custom designs unlike Alcaraz, who still gets shirts used by other tennis players from the brand. Inexplicable, no matter how you look at it.

Wait- pic.twitter.com/oXvPDtDATq

— Bastien Fachan (@BastienFachan) October 30, 2024

Not forgetting the case of On Running, the latest brand to enter the tennis world. They entered strongly by signing several talents like Shelton, Swiatek or Fonseca. A year and a half later, we see everyone using the exact same shirt tour after tour. It doesn't change. Always the same. It's incredible that an N1 like Iga barely has a shirt change throughout a whole season. Difficult to understand.

Exploiting This Market

It’s surprising seeing tennis matches where two players wear the same shirt without any exclusivity. How do we explain to someone that a Top 10 player wears the same shirt as the 93rd, 65th, or 33rd, and the design doesn't grab any attention at all? The brands have a great opportunity here to exploit a market they have shown little or no affection for.

For example, as a fan, you probably faced the impossibility of buying your favorite player's clothing. Some brands do not sell their players' apparel. Federer retired, and nobody could buy his shirts because Uniqlo didn't sell them online. A huge miss. With a few rare exceptions, it is very difficult to buy exclusive player apparel.

To start, they could make Top players wear different shirts from each other. Also, ensure those designs are novel and eye-catching. Let it be noticeable that there is an improvement in that regard. They could include players' names on the back, as they do in other sports. This would make it exclusive and increase sales. In sports like basketball or soccer, the demand for player jerseys is very high. When buying, fans could choose whether they want it nameless or with a name. Surely this would catch the attention of many people.

Then, they can add whatever they want. Having a department exclusively in charge of this, there are many possibilities, and the room for improvement is very high. By just doing a couple of things, an improvement will already be made to what exists today. It's clear that new things can be done to help progress in that regard and could be a method for extra earnings for many players through image rights. It's up to the brands to step up their game, don't you think?
 

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Hablemos de las camisetas de tenis