Roger Federer is aiming to redesign tennis fashion.
Empowered by dethroning defending champion John Isner to win his 101st career title in Miami, Federer says tennis fashion is stale and he wants to uprade it.
Federer: For Those About To Rock
In a new interview with Women's Wear Daily, Federer slams some of current "awful-looking tennis outfits" and says he's working with apparel sponsor Uniqlo to redesign the classic tennis polo shirt.
“To be quite honest, I just feel like we have some awful tennis-looking outfits sometimes,” Federer told Women's Wear Daily. “They’ve just gone too far in the wrong direction. They want to make it look too much like a modern tennis shirt that is completely wrong, in terms of designs. Like a truck drove over it — or they’re just going to come up with funky graphics, which I think in a sport of tennis, that has such a rich history…
"You know, the tennis polo is very iconic. I feel like if we work on that, to redesign that, which looks nice and crisp and new and fresh, that’s really important to me. I’ve really just tried to elevate the style, the level of that in tennis and hope that resonates also with the new generation coming through.”
Last summer, Federer official split from Nike signing a reported 10-year, $300 million deal with Uniqlo, which nearly quadruples the $7.5 million annual endorsement money Nike was paying him.
Though his Nike contract expired in March of 2018, Federer continued wearing the swoosh brand in Wimbledon warm-up events in Stuttgart and Halle before debuting Uniqlo at Wimbledon.
Nike owns the "RF" branding, which it has emblazoned on baseball caps, shirts and shoes, however the brand has not been selling RF items and it is understood Federer, who still wears Nike shoes, will regain control of his initials and branding.
“I feel like tennis is doing so well. We have so many great highlights; you can really showcase a lot of different styles and we’re really playing the best and coolest places around the world,” Federer said. “So it really lends itself to use New York as a style fashion capital of the world to some extent, to dress differently in America than maybe we dress in Rome or in Paris or in London and so forth. So I think tennis is doing great in terms of style.
"I think a lot of players could do better, but maybe it’s also their approach to be really loud and going with neon. I also think that’s a thing. You go neon, you do all crazy colors until you come back to basics, you know? I think it’s nice to see everybody trying out different feels and styles.”
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