![]() ![]() As the titans of tennis grew older, youth fashion found itself further and further removed from country club couture. While Nike leveraged storytelling surrounding Agassi’s return to the brand and relationships with Virgil Abloh’s Off-White, fragment design, and Michael Jordan to take tennis into new spaces, statement showings never led to sustained sales in the mass market sense. On tour, Nike was capable of creating amazing moments, but they proved less likely to resonate at retail or in real life like they did in the last millennium. Nike sought to bridge the gap through hybrid homage.ĭespite Serena’s dominance and Federer’s charm, tennis lacked the street appeal it possessed in prior decades. ![]() However, footwear and fashion became more fragmented - athletes demanded innovation while casual consumers grew enamored with retro looks. The sport and the Swoosh gained global ground in the ’00s and ’10s thanks to iconic endorsers like Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal. “US tennis has never been better than it was in the ’90s.” “I grew up in the ’90s playing tennis and it’s the whole reason I started collecting sneakers,” Nike archivist Andrew Incogs told Boardroom. From style to supremacy, everything aligned in what quickly became an apex era for commercial appeal. It also led the way for sustained dominance, signing stars such as Pete Sampras and Roger Federer in the next decade. Court kicks, velour tracksuits, and striped polos all crossed over to credibility on the concrete that other sports couldn’t touch.Īt Nike, investing in counter-culture phenoms like John McEnroe and Andre Agassi in the ’80s added fire to the fury. That street appeal was exactly why sneakers of all sorts were long called tennis shoes.įrom Wilson at Wimbledon to Diadora at the Australian Open, tennis fashion and footwear were aspirational and influential. ![]() “Basketball was below tennis in total sales,” Ron Hill, former Nike Product Merchandiser, told Boardroom in 2022, referencing the era before Michael Jordan‘s NBA arrival. This proved particularly true in the foundational days of Nike as they expanded from track takes to sports specialties in the late ’70s and early ’80s. While the advent of Air Jordan and the influence of hip-hop eventually pushed hoops to the forefront, court models worn in Grand Slam competitions once sold in droves. ![]() Tennis, anyone?įor decades, the sport most closely associated with affluence and fashion was tennis. So, why did it happen? It’s a sign of totem trends to come.ĭigging beneath the surface, Boardroom breaks down the business behind this Foamposite premiere and what it means for market pushes to come. Moreover, the unexpected unveiling of this peculiar pair with Alcaraz sent shockwaves through sneaker, tennis, and streetwear hives due to its incredibly niche nature. On Tuesday, the crown prince of tennis took to his Instagram account of over 4 million followers to debut the Supreme x Nike Air Zoom Courtposite: a leftfield launch that pairs the most notorious brand in streetwear with one of the most intriguingly obscure tennis shoes ever made.įirst released in 2002 and unarchived in retro form, the Nike Alpha Project design inspired by Penny Hardaway’s space-age hoop shoes and intended for Andre Agassi to don in pro play proved a deep cut even by Supreme standards. While Alcaraz is increasing his legacy with powerful play at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, he’s made major noise this week not just on ESPN, but on IG. Already on the cusp of worldwide superstardom is Carlos Alcaraz: the 20-year-old Spanish sensation who exchanged Slams with Novak Djokovic, already making millions from the likes of BMW and Calvin Klein. ![]()
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