Why Tennis Athletes Are Fashion’s New Favourite Celebrities

As this year’s French open kicked off in Paris this week, Italian tennis champion Jannik Sinner debuted a new duffle bag on court as he readied for an intense match against Christopher Eubanks. No, it wasn’t a Nike or Under Armour tote. It was a Gucci bag, made in collaboration with performance sports label Head.

Sinner is actually Gucci’s newest brand ambassador and stars in the most recent global campaign, a partnership inked after he carried a GG monogram tote on court at last year’s Wimbledon tournament. The Italian house isn’t the only luxury label courting tennis stars. This month, Louis Vuitton cast on-court rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in its new campaign, in a striking image of the duo hiking the Italian Dolomites together each carrying an LV monogrammed backpack.

Historically, sports brands like Nike and Under Armour have owned the tennis space, sponsoring top athletes and casting them in their campaigns. But as broader excitement around the sport reaches new heights, luxury names see a chance to build on their own cultural cache and relevancy by teaming up with the sport’s biggest talents.

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Perhaps due to the strict rules surrounding tennis clothes, shoes and equipment, luxury brands were long hesitant to the explore the playing field. Instead they turned to other sports such as football and basketball. In 2022, Gucci named footballer Jack Grealish as brand ambassador, he later went on to create his own Roblox avatar with the house. More recently, Arsenal footballer Bukayo Saka featured in Burberry’s SS24 campaign. Over in the US, a similar shift has been taking place. American footballer Travis Kelce wore custom Amiri for his Superbowl pre-game outfit in February.

‘Global events such as Wimbledon, the US open or the Australian open are a perfect opportunity for brands to participate in global cultural conversations and connect with international audiences,’ says chief marketing officer Alison Bringé at Launchmetrics.

In addition to being athletes, top tennis players enjoy star status (and a following to match) to rival many an A-lister. Just look at Serena Williams, whose 23 Grand Slam titles sky-rocketed her to become a celebrity household name.

Meanwhile, appetite for all things #Tenniscore only continues to rise. With the Olympic Games just around the corner, sports mania is approaching fever pitch. Tennis, in particular, has found a new level of cultural relevance recently, helped by buzzy films like Challengers — and Zendaya’s accompanying press tour, where she made headlines for her long list of tennis-inspired red carpet looks, which ranged from a vintage Ralph Lauren white tennis dress to custom Lacoste outfits and Loewe tennis ball heels.

Mentions of ‘Tenniscore’ – either in posts or articles on social media and online – grew 527 percent in April compared to the previous month, according to the data and insights platform Launchmetrics, generating over $10.8 million in Media Impact Value (MIV), a metric the firm uses to measure the monetary value of a brand’s performance on social platforms.

Luxury fashion’s surging interest in tennis is providing an exciting opportunity for players, too, to switch up their on- and off-court wardrobes.

‘We are used to being surrounded by sporting brands,’ says British number one women’s singles tennis player Katie Boulter tells ELLE UK from the French Open. ‘The opportunity to work with the brand, which makes you occasionally change your usual tennis outfit is exciting. Especially if it engages you into the world of high-end products.’ That includes the likes of Loewe, Louis Vuitton and Dior, who have all made a greater push for tennis stars.

Naomi Osaka, who since 2018 exclusively wore Nike on the courts, has signed many deals with top luxury and fashion brands, including Tag Heur and more recently, Louis Vuitton, which tapped Japanese tennis star to front its SS2021 campaign.

The latest Jannik Sinner and Gucci collaboration has been a hit thus far. 48 hours after the campaign was released on May 9, it generated $1 million in MIV, Launchmetrics said. A joint Instagram post between the luxury house and the next-gen tennis star received over 100,000 likes this month. Last year’s Jannik Sinner x Gucci tie-up at Wimbledon last year generated $2.9 million MIV on social media in one month.

It’s a win-win for all parties involved.

‘The brand gets to associate itself with the professional athlete [and] it dips into the crowds that follow top-level sports,’ Boulter says. ‘Luxury brands go hand in hand with Tennis as a sport, and they tend to attract similar profile of people.’

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