An open letter to Nike & Adidas re. tennis clothes
Kindly revert to what you were doing 20 years ago
Dear Nike and Adidas,
Your tennis players are being eclipsed by players wearing New Balance and in some cases, Wilson. Wilson, of racquet know-how but (former) sartorial whateverness! Did you think we’d be here in 2025?!
Conversely, Nike and Adidas, here are two bottom-pile looks from this past week’s US Open. I KNOW you agree a woman’s body deserves much, much better!!!
With this ugly landscape taunting us, I come to you with a fairly straightforward plan:
Please start plagiarizing your own 90s and early 00s designs. It’s really that simple.
Nostalgia can be a horribly lazy, knee-jerk reaction to the ailments of here and now. However: these are URGENT times, and the days of yore must be summoned without further delay. Tout de suite, sweeties.
The internet is telling you everything you need to know
Depop honeys have been authoring brilliant keyword strings like “vintage Y2K cute tennis fashion” for QUITE awhile now, and whether that makes you feel geriatric or not, it's time you heard them. Every time the TikTok community makes a compilation video about Maria Sharapova's outfits, you (Nike) make another forgettable tennis dress. Every time a girl adds Kournikova to their ‘tennis vibes’ Pinterest board, you (Adidas) add an abstract autumnal image to Y3’s. Any time Liana of NEVERWORNS hosts a sale with Rummage Stretch, it will speak directly to me (even if I attend only in spirit).
@Nike, when I visit your website and see more frumpy dresses, it’s easy to imagine your design team floundering in their well-appointed studio, giving feedback like, “make it more nondescript!” to align with some wider bland strategy.
When you are not bland, you might be worse:
I know I know I know Naomi made you do this! But hear me out—you can miss us normals with this one. Linkedin reckons you lot have 10,000 employees. Surely, then, someone has ensured the design archive is organized with monastic discipline. Why not crack it open??? If you could kindly recut any or all of the below styles for global retail availability, you’ll never hear from me again:
Now there WAS a certain red/maroon look that DID pass the test at this year’s US Open. And yet, when considered against all that I’ve just shown you, I’m still left wanting. On we must go with this intervention
@Adidas: I actually quite liked something you did just last year: Elina Svitolina’s French Open dress (2004). It fit her right, as if you’d maybe even taken the time to consider her height with relation to the hemline, the way you did in the 00s when everything was beautiful and nothing hurt. Good! Since then, not so much. The US Open’s Y3 debut read like an afterthought; a volcano-inspired objet d’art that tried to take tennis somewhere I’m not sure it needs to go. The collection was then foisted upon whichever players were contracted with Adidas, who, as it happens, are not players who feel very in step with Yohji.
At this point in the piece, I am tired.
@Adidas, please refer to the recommendations for Nike, and do the same for your brand. Here are your marching orders:
Nike, Adidas,
I am one last time asking for what we rightfully deserve: a little imagination, in a sexy way. Not unlike this video! Purrr.
The blueprints exist. Just do it.
Just some shopping links, should you now be in the mood to consume (sustainably!!). I have realllly tested this post’s capacity with all these images, so you’ll have to click the links to see what’s behind doors one through seven.
I am now done with this particular argument, but here’s some spoilers about my next: the luxury and luxury-adjacent brands who should join Miu Miu, Khaite, LV et al to dress our pros. In that essay I will discuss: which brands and for which pros and for what reasons. Thank you and happy men’s semi-finals day.
What are your thoughts on Lululemon?? I think they’re dressing Leylah Fernandez well and I find their skirts very functional with nice materials! Unfortunate that they’re one of the biggest culprits contributing to tennis skirt fetishization though
Also thank you for having the bravery to call out Naomi’s HIDEOUS purple dress, I YELLED at the TV when I saw it! So so so awful
I’m obviously no expert or whatever when it comes to clothes, let alone women’s clothes, but I thought the outfit Jessica Pegula wore was terrible and didn’t complement her. In addition, and you may have commented on this, but there was one match where two players were wearing the same outfit; the only way you could tell them apart was their shoes.