Five days before its debut at Wimbledon 2023, Louis Vuitton announced that Carlos Alcaraz was its new ambassador. The 20-year-old tennis player from Murcia, number one on the ATP, joined an exclusive club of which Zendaya, the BTS member J-Hope or Lionel Messi are also members. All, leaders in their own. Everyone at least six years older than him.
He is not the only young tennis player linked to luxury brands. Holger Rune, Danish, 21 years old, number six in the world, is the image of Armani. And Jannik Sinner, an Italian of the same age and ranked number eight in the ATP, yesterday marked a small milestone in the history of that sport. He showed up to his match against Argentina’s Cerundolo wearing a personalized Gucci bag with his initials engraved on center court at Wimbledon. According to the Italian brand, it was the first time that a tennis player was authorized to take a luxury bag with the logo to the court. And also in the most traditional of the Grand Slams, the four most important tournaments on the annual calendar. They are the Australian Open, (Melbourne); Roland Garros, (Paris); the US Open, (New York) and Wimbledon (London). In the latter, which began yesterday, an old rule from the 19th century still applies that obliges players to wear rigorous white, even in training. A rule so outdated that until this year tennis players were required to wear white underwear.
Danish tennis player Holger Rune, dressed by Giorgio Armani at the 2023 Mutua Open in Madrid, photographed for the June issue of ICON.Pablo Zamora
It’s a real novelty in tennis. The stars of the NBA, soccer or Formula 1 have long since turned their appearances into fashion catwalks, but until now tennis courts were exclusive territory for sports brands that sponsor players. The closest thing anyone has seen is Casper Ruud as a Samsonite ambassador, but the elegant Gucci bag has little to do with the lime-colored suitcase promoted by the 24-year-old Norwegian, number four in the world.
Nothing has been improvised. Constructed of canvas with leather trims, removable straps and hidden water bottle pockets inside, the bag was designed not to break any rule in the 106-page book that regulates every detail of Grand Slams. Among them, those that limit the size, placement and number of logos on the sleeves, collars, caps, headbands, socks and, of course, the kit bags.
Until now, luxury was not common in tennis, except for some watch brands (Rolex not only sponsors tennis players, such as Federer or Alcaraz himself, but also the main competitions). But the relationship of tennis with the big clothing companies is not new. Adidas turned its Stan Smith in 1978 into one of its most popular models. To the point that the tennis player, winner of Wimbledon in 1972, declared with a point of bitterness: “Many people think of me only as a pair of tennis shoes.” Rafa Nadal is linked to Emporio Armani and Tommy Hilfiger; Djokovic to Lacoste and Federer had a lucrative deal with Uniqlo, but Alcaraz seems destined to outdo them.
Carlos Alcaraz has become the new ambassador of the fashion brand Louis Vuitton. “I felt it was a perfect relationship,” Alcaraz said in a statement, explaining that he wants to learn more about the world of fashion.
Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune and Jannik Sinner are, finally, part of the generation that could replace the official gold trio: Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer, three stars who extended their dominance on the courts for many more years than expected . A player with charisma was needed to lead the renewal and the appearance of the Murcian has been providential. His way of playing and his character have breathed new life into tennis and have led to a generational change. Today, in the top ten, only Djokovic (36 years old) is over 30 and Medvedev (27), 25. The rest are younger. They are elegant players, as physical as they are technical, travelled, polyglot and well advised. Albert Molina, Alcaraz’s manager, is pointed out as the person who guides his steps in terms of sponsorships. There is no Agassi, Connors or McEnroe, rebellious and sometimes unpresentable. The most similar, the unpredictable Australian Nick Kyrgios, has plummeted at the age of 28 to 33rd place. They are not even aesthetically rebellious. They are closer to the classic elegance of Federer than the young Nadal in capri pants and tank tops.
This new batch of neat players without eccentricities, far removed from soccer players and their tattoos, but increasingly well-known, has a sweet tooth for luxury, now embarking on a return to a calmer aesthetic than in the last five years. Something that the Louis Vuitton statement presenting Alcaraz as its new ambassador summarized in a brief paragraph: “Sharing the same philosophy of effort and excellence that distinguishes Louis Vuitton, Carlos continues to raise the bar of tennis. His attractiveness and his style have won him fans inside and outside of the sport who, surely, will be looking forward to following him in this new adventure ”. As Vanessa Friedman wrote in the New York Times: “After all, what is a brand if not a set of values embodied in a name, a logo, or an object? It is a symbol that represents an inheritance, a know-how. Or excellence, aspiration, power, grace and activism: all these concepts accompany athletes. And sometimes, also to bags. Or some slippers.”
The interest of luxury brands in this sport has also skyrocketed at an institutional level. An example: since 1994, an exhibition tournament on grass has been held a week before Wimbledon at the Hurlingham Club in London. In 2022, Giorgio Armani replaced BNP Paribas as title sponsor. Since then, it has been known as the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic.
2023-07-05 07:37:19
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