Men’s tennis ready to turn its athletes into fashion stars

27 Aug 2025

Men’s tennis is ready to take fashion seriously.

The NBA and the NFL have turned pre-game tunnel walks into runway shows and have collaborated with buzzy brands ranging from Louis Vuitton to Skims, increasing revenue and strengthening players’ brands in the process. Now, the ATP Tour wants in.

In the lead up to the US Open, the men’s tennis tour set up styling suites with stylist Mobolaji Dawodu and photoshoots for five of its top players (Frances Tiafoe, Flavio Cobolli, Alex de Minaur, Andrey Rublev and Holger Rune), providing them with content for their social platforms and fashion-forward outfits to wear to the myriad pre-tournament events on their schedules. Rather than wearing their sponsors head-to-toe as is customary, the players were styled in looks from luxury brands like Ralph Lauren, Ferragamo and Issey Miyake, plus cool contemporary brands like Amiri, Officine Générale and Stone Island.

To draw the attention of new audiences and extend the life of such content, influential Instagram accounts in both the tennis and fashion space — including @HauteLeMode (516,000 followers) and @OvertimeTennis (30,100 followers) — have been asked by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) to review featured outfits over the next two weeks.
Also last week, the ATP Tour debuted its first fashion collaboration in years with contemporary Copenhagen brand Palmes — featuring T-shirts, polo tops, tennis shorts, caps and a tote bag. The tie-up was celebrated with a party of chic, tennis-adjacent influencers and press at New York’s Gem Home.
All of this is part of a larger fashion initiative that the ATP Tour plans to roll out more forcefully next year, according to Andrew Walker, the tour’s SVP of marketing. “There’s a clear intersection in interests between tennis and fashion for our fans, and we see this as an opportunity to bring fans who might be following the sport more casually deeper into the fold,” he says.

It’s also a way to support the personal brands of individual athletes. “Many players have a genuine interest in fashion, and they understand that fashion can be an incredibly powerful vehicle to grow and enhance their [personal] brands as they think about their off-court businesses and attracting more sponsors and fans,” explains Walker. This only helps to raise the sport’s profile more broadly. “Our athlete marketing division is specifically set up to support our athletes, so this was a natural way to do that.”

The relationship between tennis and fashion has reached new heights over the last few years, with global stars like Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz drawing renewed attention to the sport and partnering with luxury brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton in the process. But this is the first time the men’s tour itself will be investing in a dedicated fashion marketing strategy.

The ATP Tour declined to comment on the investment involved in this initial fashion rollout but said that its budget for fashion initiatives is expected to quadruple in 2026. That will go towards stylists, photography, videography and marketing across various media channels, including influencer partnerships.