Brand Chat vol. 2: Spence
Talking tennis, fall color stories and more...
One thing about me, if I’m interested in something I’m going to be a bit of a bulldog about it. If you’ve been a dedicated reader of the past few newsletters, you’ll know I am a little obsessed with the launch of Spence, a “new player in racquet sports.” So, I did what I do and tracked down Amanda Greeley, the brand’s founder. What follows is our conversation – a wonderful primer on the world Greeley is building. If you’re an eager beaver like me, Spence opened up pre-orders on their Warm-Up Sweatshirt in advance of their full debut in the coming months. I got the heavy cream in a size M.
The Court is my Runway
In Conversation with Amanda Greeley, Founder of Spence
What was your introduction to sports? Do you remember what you wore?
My introduction to sports came pretty young because my dad was a big sports fan, and we spent a lot of time together when I was little. My mom had a pretty demanding job, I am/was an only child, so I grew up watching a lot of sports with my dad learning about sports. He had played college baseball. His dad, my grandfather, was also a big sports fan, and it was my grandpa who gave me my first tennis racket when I was three. I still have the racket.
Here's a picture of me on a court when I was probably 4. I took to tennis pretty quickly, honestly in part because I think childhood-me liked the outfits. This is evidence that I've always loved a good red moment…1
I was definitely girlier when I was little. So, I've really never thought about this, but part of why I probably loved tennis early on might be that the outfits were both sporty and girly, relative to things like soccer/baseball.
No one has asked me about memories and what I wore on the court, and honestly there are many! One place I played growing up was a club that still made you wear all white. When I was about 10, I found this Adidas polo shirt that was half white and half light blue and I loved it. I'd always try to wear it at this club and would mostly get in trouble for it.
I also remember when Serena came onto the scene when she was Puma sponsored. This was the era when perhaps Venus was still more of the star, but I LOVED Serena's Puma looks. She wore that green dress to the French Open in 2002 and I was sold. It wasn't that Puma was a tennis brand, and in Ohio, I could only find Puma had a big-box sporting goods store, but I remember finding these little Puma track shorts that I wore heavily on the tennis court for a few years, likely all because of Serena.
In middle school, my all-time favorite tennis outfit was a light blue cotton tennis dress I found at Abercrombie of all places. It was probably the first time they tried to do anything 'sport', and shockingly it wasn't branded at all. Just a great simple cami sport dress in light blue with white panels on the side. I lived in that thing until it fell apart.
So, lol - yes I remember what I wore!
You launched Spence because you saw a void in the market for a distinct perspective on tennis attire, which is too often rooted in nostalgia or telegraphing hyper-performance. What was the "aha" moment that led you to create the brand?
It's funny - the whole 'hole in the market' line of thinking feels like maybe we've beat it to death. Ever since Warby Parker came on the scene, it feels like we've 'reinvented' literally everything. That said, it was 2018-ish, maybe even 2017, and my good guy friend who is more into soccer/cycling knew I had played tennis my whole life. I think we were collectively looking around at cool emerging running and cycling brands and observed that there was nothing happening in tennis at that time.
I realized I was still wearing old Nike skirts I had in college that I didn't even like that much. I remember going to Nike.com trying to spend money on tennis clothes, but not finding anything I wanted to buy. I started to dig around, and at the time noticed that brands like Wilson, Prince, Babolat, and Head all had NO direct e-commerce. They were only wholesale brands as late as 2019. I still have screen grabs from those sites from that time.
Then I began asking other tennis players where they were shopping, what they were wearing -- everyone was still default going to Tennis Warehouse/Tennis Express, which is just sort of a comical commerce/brand experience relative to what we now think of as a good UX.
So, then I started to pitch the idea to some people then. I probably made five different concept decks in 2017-19 but was met with the challenge of people telling me the TAM for tennis/racquet sports was too small. It was seen as a stagnant market even just a few years ago.
Honestly though, as soon as the friend mentioned above told me to start a tennis line, I really never stopped thinking about it. In fact, I named it Spence on the spot haha.
Tenniscore is trending, but Spence it seems is sort of subverting the typical tenniscore look. How have you approached remixing the classics?
At times it's been stressful to see this whole tennis trend explode as I've been trying to launch this. It's funny to have that feeling of being too early and then maybe too late in a relatively short window of time. I think/or I hope that maybe Spence feels different because I don't think I've been thinking about it in relation to the 'tenniscore' moment. I'm so tired of 'cores'. I love the word subversive, and I've spent a lot of time looking at other sports like surf, skate, and basketball, as I think they are more often successful at being subversive.
I think I had seen this my whole life, but at some point it became really obvious that there was a disconnect between how tennis is presented in media and how it actually looks on real tennis courts.
It's hardly original today, but I think I honestly have spent a lot of time thinking about what I actually would want to wear on a tennis court. I also love finding a sort of tension point between old and new, but doing things that feel a little less on-the-nose. For me this means giving a sweatshirt a more refined neckline, a great boxy shape/dropped arm, which is considerate of a swinging motion.. sort of a functional elegance, but that ditches the try-hard feeling of the classic cricket/tennis sweater.
What are some of your sources of inspiration for the brand?
God, so many at this point... My Instagram feed is a bit of a nightmare as I feel like I've kind of seen all of the tennis images that get circulated over and over and over again. Yes, there are a lot of 'tennis' references that have been folded into Spence, but when it comes to looking at player style from the past, I try to key in on specific details that feel interesting... collars, proportions, colors, trims, logo placements, but then always want to re-tool things a bit to feel unique to Spence.
Beyond that I love looking at 'sport' outside of tennis: Basketball, soccer, driving, skate. Also love looking at favorite editorial images over the ages... no shortage of Jil Sander or Issey Miyake campaign images in various folders on my desktop.
But truly - love to look in less expected places too... candy wrappers, NASA, letters from my grandfather, title cards from movies from the 60s-80s.
Are their brands in different sporting verticals you admire? Or any athletes you'd love to dress?
I think running, cycling, and yoga have seen a lot of interesting new sport-specific brands in their relevant spaces: District Vision, Bandit, Tracksmith, Satisfy, Pas Normal Studios, Cafe du Cycliste, Rapha, Alo, Nagnata, etc.
For some reason, 'tennis' always seems to be a story of reinvention. Fila has reinvented itself like five times in my lifetime alone.
Athletes - of course. But honestly, the world of sponsored sports has a serious gatekeeping aspect to it. My hope is to gain credibility with competitive players who 'have gone pro in something else' or to be the thing that tour players would like to wear in their unsponsored moments. In the long term, it would be incredible to have the opportunity to dress someone for the big tournaments.
How have you approached designing for performance? What are the most important factors for athletes on the court?
'Performance' really is its own world, and it means different things to different people, but for me, I guess I think about (1) does it feel comfortable on and off the court, (2) Re: racquet sports, are ball pockets in the right places? Are tops cut for a swinging motion? ... I hate when things ride up, or if sweatshirt arms are tight/up in my armpit if I'm trying to hit or serve. (3) will it wash and wear well over time?... I love the idea of creating the kind of pieces that you want to have in your closet for many years, even things that almost get better as they get worn in. (4) Material selection is so key and so interesting. We've decided to move away from the sort of 'dry fit' feeling that's become pretty commonplace in sport - looking for natural fiber materials that feel super breathable and have some sort of performance aspect to them, which can be about being quick drying, having an airiness via perforation, lightness, etc. We cut most of our first collection in Japanese and Italian materials.
What's something you're excited to develop in the future for Spence either in terms of apparel, community...?
Also, ah! So much. I think by really 'standing' for racquet sports, there's so much that can be done in the world of community building, in making all of these sports more attractive giving players more ways to connect with one another. I don't want to get too long-winded. But also, on the product side, we have some pieces in the works that I am SO excited about from a silhouette, construction perspective, and while our first collection feels pretty classic, I think we are headed somewhere that feels more innovative.
Fall Trends: Activewear Edition
I’ve been loving all the Substacks rounding up the key color stories for fall: namely deep burgundies, chocolate browns, and soft greens.
So I did a little hunting to see which activewear brands were offering options in the palette of the season. Apologies for the lack of links, I ran out of the time that I (and my baby) allow myself to work on this! Send me a message if you can’t find what you’re looking for.
Burgundy
I love a wine or burgundy paired with navy. While this might be a “trending” color, it’s pretty timeless and wearable.
Chocolate Brown
A darker brown is an easy swap for black. It works well with burgundy or the sage colors below for a more earthy look.
Sage Green
Forest green is classically autumnal, so it feels fresh to mix things up with something a little softer.
Quick Thoughts
Things That Drew My Eye or My Ire…
Few men are doing more to promote women’s sports than Serena Williams’s husband Alexis Ohanian. Together with Gabby Douglas, the Athlos Meet coming next week in NYC puts the world’s fastest women on the pedestal they deserve. In addition to the racing, Megan Thee Stallion is set to perform. So it was cool to see this collaboration with Ryoko Rain, which puts sprinter Alaysha Johnson’s unique style front and center. It’s a perfect marriage of sport, culture and fashion. I can’t wait to watch!
On the topic of sprinters and style, I appreciated this recent post by Togethxr on Black women’s role in shaping the discourse around sports and fashion. They rightly mention the Tennesee State Tigerbelles, the team that paved the way for runners like Sha’carri Richardson in terms of both speed and style.
There’s one story from the Tigerbelle’s legacy that I love, which underscores the way that Black female athletes have long used fashion as activism. When Tigerbelle star Wyomia Tyus won the 100m at the 1968 Mexico Games she did so in black shorts, her way of showing support for the Olympic Human Rights Project made famous by her teammates Tommie Smith and John Carlos. “Knowing what it feels like to be discriminated against, growing up in the South, growing up during the Jim Crow era, being a Black woman, being told that muscles are ugly … to me, that was part of my protest. This is to show people all the things [they] say are not true,” she said after her race.
I thought it was interesting that Saucony referenced WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson’s “Of course I have a shoe.com” moment (in which she announced her Nike signature shoe via her tunnel fit sweatshirt) to debut their Black Women Run collaboration. It’s wild to see them nod to another major brand’s (and competitor’s) moment like this, though it feels right given the context.
I was excited to see Simone Biles’ latest collection for Athleta but seriously underwhelmed by the marketing. From what I could find, this Vogue profile had the most context for the inspiration behind the collection: “Since it comes out close to the fall, we tried to keep it pretty neutral. But there’s still a nice pop of color, and, all together, I think it’s something that looks nice for the season,” Biles told Vogue. And “Each item is in line with Biles’s own eye and style. “Even if I have to dress up, I’ll try to make it it, like, a chic athleisurewear look,” she says.” If you go on Athleta.com, other than a homepage takeover of Biles in some of the looks, there’s no content on the product pages or anywhere I could find offering insight on what makes these pieces unique or particularly Biles. Even the social content is fairly run of the mill. Nothing irks me more than a missed opportunity for storytelling.
I’m planning to do some ski content as we get closer to winter but as an avid watcher of “Emily in Paris” it was fun to see Goldbergh, the Dutch premium ski-wear brand, promoting the looks donned by Emily and friends in Megève. Emily’s outfit was inspired by Audrey Hepburn in Charade and their landing page does a good job of contextualizing and merchandising the styles from the show. This is ski fashion with a capital F best suited for glitzy resorts in the Alps or Aspen. If you wore this suit at New Hampshire’s notoriously windy Cannon Mountain you’d risk getting blown away (not to mention ridiculed by notoriously fashion-phobic New Englanders.)
Very into the Off White x New York Liberty partnership.
Reformation x Hoka incoming!
Football (or should I say soccer) shirts are trendy and $$$ now.
Lastly, this made me laugh. I said I wanted to see a fashion show on a track, but not this way!
Me too! Was anyone else obsessed with the book “Red is Best” as a kid?
I have indeed been thinking about making burgundy my color. I feel like I want to separate myself from the black-clad masses.