By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, December 7, 2018
No player gave us a more stunning style transformation in 2018 than Grand Slam king Roger Federer.
Photo credit: Rob Newell/CameraSport
Welcome to the inaugural Tennis Now 25, where we celebrate the best popcorn moments of the 2018 tennis season, and award 25 “Popcorn Awards” to honor the most breathtaking and memorable performances of 2018.
About the Awards:
The #TN25 is designed not simply to remember the best matches, comebacks or Grand Slam performances. What we aim to accomplish here is to dig deeper into the archives so that we may celebrate some of the more offbeat and difficult-to-quantify performances.
TN25: Naomi Osaka Wins Best In Press
This is our first time doling out these awards, and our attempt to veer away from the typical year-end rundown is genuine in that we feel it echoes the season of giving. What we aim to give is praise and thanks to those who made the season memorable on many levels...
Surely, with this being a new process for our editorial staff, there will be a few bumps along the road. Here and there we suspect that our valued readership may find a few things to disagree with (surprise!). If that’s the case, take to social media using the hashtag #TN25 and tell us what we missed or where we could have done better.
As the players like to say after they win their titles--none of this would have been possible without you guys, and that’s why we are going to put some of the awards to a Twitter vote in December, so stay tuned for that.
But for now, we must get to the awards…
Best Rebranding: Roger Federer
The Best Rebrand goes to the player who made the most successful style transformation of the season. And the winner is... Roger Federer.
Applause is Roger Federer's favorite sound on court.
Astonished applause is what he heard walking onto Centre Court clad in Uniqlo for the first time.
Just when you thought Federer had shown you everything that could possibly be achieved on the court, the Maestro gave us the ultimate fashion transformation.
The man who captured all 20 of his Grand Slam titles, including eight Wimbledon championships, wearing Nike, shed the swoosh for the square.
The 37-year-old Swiss said so long to the swoosh splitting with Nike—the only brand he’d worn in his pro career—signing a massive 10-year deal with Uniqlo.
The Uniqlo pact will reportedly pay Federer somewhere between $28 million and $30 million annually, nearly quadrupling the $7.5 million Nike was paying him each year.
Uniqlo also sponsors Kei Nishikori and formerly sponsored Novak Djokovic before he left for Lacoste.
Unveiling all-ivory Uniqlo apparel, Federer did more than bring gasps to Center Court—he brought Sesame Street to SW19.
The father of four brought Big Bird, Cookie Monster and friends to the practice court wearing Uniqlo's Sesame Street collection by artist KAWS.
Though his Nike deal ended in March, Federer continued wearing the swoosh in Wimbledon warm-up tournaments.
Reportedly frustrated by Nike negotiations, the Swiss opted to split.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion continues wearing his customized size 12 Nike shoes with the trademark “RF” logo on the shoe.
Nike owns the RF logo and has emblazoned it on baseball caps, shirts and shoes. Federer fans continue to show their loyalty wearing the RF logo at tournaments.
“The good news is that it will come to me at one point,” Federer said of the RF branding. “They are my initials. They are mine. The good things is it’s not theirs forever."
During the US Open, Federer said negotiations between his agent, Tony Godsick, and Nike are ongoing and he expects he will eventually gain ownership over the iconic RF logo. If he does, expect to see it on his Uniqlo gear.
"Down the road maybe (it will be resolved)," Federer said at the US Open. "For the moment, no, not yet. It was never going to happen overnight. We have to speak. I think Tony's got meetings here as well just to see what's up.
"Obviously I'm aware that the fans want it. I would love it. There is a process you have to go through. It's all good, you know. I hope time will solve that problem, if it is one. For me it's okay."
Federer is not the first superstar player to change clothing brands.
Serena Williams wore Puma winning her maiden major at the 1999 US Open. Novak Djokovic has worn adidas, Sergio Tacchini and Lacoste in his career. Andy Murray has bounced from Fred Perry to adidas to Under Armour and Andre Agassi famously switched from Nike to adidas in the later stages of his career before rejoining Nike in retirement.
Federer's smooth transition to Uniqlo—and his seamless skill syncing the color scheme of his Nike kicks to his Uniqlo clothes—earns him our Best Rebranding Award.
Honorable Mention
Simona Halep started the season without a clothing sponsor.
The world No. 1 didn't scour her closet for tennis apparel—instead, she hit the Internet.
Halep, whose clothing contract with adidas ended at the end of 2017, bought her apparel online from a Chinese seamstress at the start of the season.
"I sent a picture," Halep said at her Australian Open press conference. "Was a site, in China actually, and one of my managers helped me, and in 24 hours I had the outfit, and were perfect. I was lucky."
In February, Halep signed on with Nike tweeting out this image with the caption: "Just do it — I just did it."
The 26-year-old Romanian will earn about $2 million annually from Nike, reports Romania-insider.com.
Halep had been an adidas endorser, but her contract with the triple stripe brand ended at the end of 2017 and the two sides could not come to terms on a renewal. She won the first Grand Slam title of her career in June wearing Nike.
Novak Djokovic launched the year stepping out of adidas and into Asics.
Djokovic joined Asics Footwear as a global footwear partner. The Japan-based footwear company introduced the new Gel Resolution Novak shoe.
It’s the second big move in less than a year for Djokovic, who switched from apparel provider Uniqlo to Lacoste in the spring of 2017.