Tennis’s Stealth-Wealth Style Boom

Italy’s Jannik Sinner made history at Wimbledon last week as he carried a non-white bag onto the court – the first time a player was ever allowed to break from tradition in this way. The bag in question? A custom monogrammed duffle bag by Gucci, the label for which Sinner has been a brand ambassador since 2019.

Sports merchandise is a booming category that’s increasingly commanding sartorial attention, and athletes are leaning into fashion in a major way, becoming hugely sought after influencers and brand ambassadors at luxury level. And while other sports like football and basketball have been quicker to embrace fashion and celebrity, tennis – largely due to its ‘old money’ heritage – has previously remained rooted in tradition.

That’s quickly changing. Louis Vuitton has recruited players like Japan’s Naomi Osaka and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz (this year’s Wimbledon champion), while Dior’s tapped the UK’s Emma Raducanu, and the on- and off-court impact of now retired Serena Williams (who was most recently brand ambassador for  Stuart Weitzman) speaks for itself.

Sinner is not the first player to capitalise on fashion partnerships, but it is the first time the official tennis bodies have allowed rule bending when it comes to on-court apparel at Wimbledon – opening a wealth of future opportunity in the sport.

In luxury terms, tennis is an accessible, yet aspirational entry point for many consumers looking to get on the ‘quiet luxury’ style ladder. While brands across the board have been betting big on sportswear in recent years, it’s largely stayed within the realm of streetwear and the sports linked to it – namely football, basketball and baseball. However, a new shift sees tennis’s close cousins pickleball and padel now ranked among the world’s fastest-growing sports, and they’re especially popular with young players.

Our 2023 youth style group the Sports-Luxe Sartorialists embodies much of this look, favouring ‘stealth wealth’ sporting activities like tennis and golf, as well as preppy styling choices. And tennis fashion is also TikTok certified – a search on the platform for ‘tenniscore’ returns videos with a combined five million views, indicating its rapidly growing popularity amongst digitally clued-up cohorts.

But aspiration remains the key word here, as most young consumers aren’t shopping at Gucci to fulfil their #tenniscore fantasies. Coinciding with global tennis events including Wimbledon and the forthcoming US Open, recent months have seen a slew of youth-aimed mid-market and streetwear-adjacent luxury brands making tennis a priority in their lifestyle offerings.

Canada's Sporty & Rich has amped up the on-court aesthetics in its recent collections, collaborating with brands spanning from French heritage label Lacoste (itself founded by Tennis star René Lacoste) to luxury destination Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc. In the same vein, UK-based ‘it girl’ active brand Tala released an instantly viral tennis capsule last month, following a similar move from Celine in March.

Elsewhere, New York's Kith recently teamed up with on-court mainstay Wilson, while Scandi favourite Ganni collaborated with iconic tennis legacy brand Prince. Activewear giants like Puma and Diadora are also reimagining their own archival tennis shoe silhouettes.

Stealth wealth is more than just a popular aesthetic; it’s a lifestyle that is hugely inaccessible to many attempting to partake in or emulate it. Tennis, on the other hand, is a super commercial yet still true-to-form way to engage with the trend – meaning that in terms of aesthetics, lifestyle and price point, it becomes an attainable taster of ‘quiet luxury’.