What's the Deal with Tenniscore?
Trend math, U.S. Open fit checks and more...
Could there be a better way to put a bow on the Summer of Sport than the U.S. Open? Record-breaking crowds at Flushing Meadows show that tennis is hotter than ever – people want to see and be seen courtside. It doesn’t hurt that the sport’s aesthetic is trending. The rise of #tenniscore has been well-documented since the pandemic. Its place in the current zeitgeist is undoubtedly linked to Zendaya’s heroic press tour for Challengers, but I think there are some more influences at play to unpack. Let’s call this: trend math.
Visit the websites of premium activewear brands like Alo, Vuori or Lululemon and you’ll find whole sections dedicated to tennis attire. Where once these brands focused on yoga, running, and general fitness-wear, racquet sports have emerged as a key market – in part because women are wearing tennis dresses as part of their everyday wardrobe. Where once tennis dresses were resigned to the country club, I’d wager that the majority of new sales go to women who have little intention of hitting the court.
The rise of the tennis dress as an athleisure staple can be traced to the viral success of the Exercise Dress, a trend that began during Outdoor Voices’ heyday in 2018. Before OV’s push, working out in dresses or skirts was uncommon. Running skirts were considered fairly uncool – you tended to only see them on older athletes. I remember pitching an idea for a running polo dress at Tracksmith in 2017 or so – it didn’t make the cut. Here’s a look at Google search trends for workout and exercise dresses that show the rising interest in the look from 2017 to today.
The big bump in searches for “exercise dress” happened in summer 2021, when the style began going viral on TikTok. Around the same time the “Hot Girl Walk” cemented a certain aesthetic: workout dress plus Hokas and a giant water bottle. Both trends emerged from the pandemic, which transformed many consumers’ relationships with both workouts and workout attire.
Brands took notice. Where once Outdoor Voices was one of the few retailers offering a short spandex dress with built-in undershorts, a whole host of others launched “dupes” from household names like Old Navy, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Amazon to activewear giants like Nike and Lululemon, and emerging brands like Girlfriend Collective and Halara. Today, exercise dresses are now standard leisure wear. I spotted tons in the crowds at the U.S. Open.
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Alongside this interest in the exercise dress came renewed energy around prep. Arguably, prep’s classic look never goes out of style, but over the past few years it’s been given new life thanks to trends like “Coastal Grandma” (2022), “Quiet Luxury (2023), and “Old Money Style” (2024). Brands like Rowing Blazers, Noah, Aime Leon Dore, and the resurgent J.Crew have helped usher in a new, cooler era of prep.
Between the rise of the exercise dress and prep’s Saturn Return, the foundation was laid for tenniscore’s ascendence. All it needed was a little push from… you guessed it… pickleball. Like the hot girl walk, the buzz around pickleball cannot be separated from pandemic culture, which necessitated and popularized outdoor activities.
Is it any surprise that interest in pickleball and the exercise dress align so closely? While the exercise dress was not originally marketed for pickleball, it met the moment. Women who’d never played tennis were suddenly taking to their local tennis-turned-pickleball court in droves, on the hunt for cute attire to wear and share on social media. Pickleball’s rise unlocked a new market for tennis attire. Its lower barrier to entry helped democratize the tennis “look.” Now anyone could conceivably claim the racquet sport lifestyle.
Interest in tennis also grew during the pandemic. Participation increased by 5% in 2021, according to the International Tennis Federation’s 2021 Global Tennis Report. The same year, the USTA launched its “Be Open” campaign, an effort to combat tennis’s elitist perception and grow the sport. As a result, the USTA reported a peak 23.6 million players in 2023, driven in part by an increase in participation among people of color.
Thus the market was primed for the rise of tenniscore, which began trending in 2022 with Miu Miu’s FW/22 Collection and reached its zenith this summer thanks to Law Roach and Zendaya’s legendary press tour for “Challengers.” From Fashionista: “WGSN reports that, as a result of the chatter surrounding Zendaya and her recent style streak, as well as campaigns from the US Tennis Association (USTA) and tailored launches from fashion brands, styles tagged "tennis" have increased by 7% year-over-year, compared to 2023. Pleated skirts, meanwhile, have grown 2% year-over-year, now making up 24% of the skirts mix.”
Brands have reacted accordingly. Endemic brands like Lacoste, Wilson and Fila have doubled down with nostalgic collections. Luxury fashion houses like Brunello Cucinelli and Celine launched tennis-themed capsules, while more mid-market players like Reformation and Veronica Beard released their own. You can even find #tenniscore looks at Target and Walmart (this dress is pretty cute).
Is this #tenniscore’s high watermark? Ironically the biggest fashion moment1 from the U.S. Open came from Naomi Osaka in a Harajuku-inspired look that subverted traditional tennis aesthetics for the better. Like Serena Williams before her, her Ambush x Nike confection is a reminder that tennis fashion is at its best when it’s moving the needle forward not just regurgitating nostalgia. Other athletes and brands would do well to take note.
U.S. Open Notes.
Outside of Nike’s look for Naomi, most brands played it safe with either #tenniscore moments or remixes on their usual looks.
I’ve been watching the Open carefully to assess each brand’s offerings. In between matches, I spent some time exploring whether or not they made their pro’s looks available to the public and how they presented the looks online. This is important! Nike won big time by selling a version of their Open outfits when a young girl showed up at the tournament matching Aryna Sabalenka – from her pink dress to her tiger tattoo. As I discussed with track and field, a brand’s job is to help fans be fans!
New York is the perfect place to play with fashion, but it seems most brands were happy to rest on their laurels. Nike reaped the benefits in both press coverage and social buzz of taking a big swing with Naomi, but the rest of their athletes competed in some fairly basic outfits delivered in a confusing range of colors: from bright pink, to purple, black, and even olive green. Maybe they did this deliberately knowing that Naomi would steal the show? (You can buy the non-Naomi dress here.)
New Balance coordinated Coco Gauff’s light blue and yellow look with her new GC2s. For her round two match, the yellow was dialed up a bit and she wore a darker turquoise. The cut of the dress stayed the same though, with a cute mid-drift cut-out and pleated skirt. You can buy the GC2 here, there was no version of Coco’s dress that I could find online.
Adidas marginally improved on their yellow and black kits with a new purple, black, and white colorway. It looked sharp as crop-top and skirt combination on Maria Sakkari but their long-sleeved, armpit cutout dress is an eye-sore. I suppose I should applaud an attempt at fashion, but it’s just ugly. You can buy the dress and skirt on Adidas.com. Strangely, the longsleeved look is available to buy at Tennis Warehouse but not at Adidas.com. Perhaps they are disavowing the style?
Fila leaned into nostalgia with their off-white outfits for men and women. Emma Navarro looks great in the polo crop top and classic pleated skirt, though I thought the color looked dirty once it got sweaty. Points for being able to buy these looks online and at a pop-up at the Open, though.
Lululemon also went the tenniscore route with their look for Leylah Fernandez. I liked the cut of the dress and the mixed green stripes on the skirt. It was a bummer she lost in the first round – am sure Lulu was frustrated. They heroed Leylah on their homepage as part of a tennis collection with some good copywriting like: “Advantage: You” and “Dress to Win.” And Forbes covered their continued investment in tennis (apparently they were working with Fernandez on the dress for a year.) You can buy the look here. While you’re at it, this Lululemon Tennis Club sweatshirt is cute.
FP Movement’s Sloane Stephens wore an all-red look for her first-round upset. Red is my favorite color, so I was sad to see this outfit go out early. I looked online and it appears she was wearing a special colorway of this Easy Does It Dress. Sofia Kenin also looked cute in a green tank and skirt, though it was hard to tell it was FP because the logo is so small. Based on my web research, she wore an exclusive color of the Never Better Volley Skirt and Free Throw Muscle Tank. Danielle Collins was in a white and navy version of this look. FP Movement does a good job showcasing their ambassador’s favorite gear, so it was surprising how difficult it was to figure this out.
Asics’ purple/orange kits didn’t pop on the court. If you disagree, you can buy the same colorway as their pros here.
For my money, Wilson has the best fashion among core tennis brands right now. I liked Marta Kostyuk’s neon yellow dress, which was a fun spin on a classic silhouette (inspired by 90s tennis aesthetics.) It’s available online. Side note, I am into this graphic tee.
On updated their ombre gradient look in a fun mix of pink and blue. They did a good job of presenting Iga Swiatke’s look online as part of an “Open Capsule Collection.” But you can’t buy the whole outfit, only the tank (and the U.S. Open colorway is sold out) which is a bummer cause I would have bought the skirt or the shorts. I’m a sucker for plays on pink.
Last week, I asked when we’d see the launch of a sports beauty brand. I should have known the answer might come from tennis. First off, I forgot about Serena William’s Wyn Beauty, which makes “makeup you can move in.” Then Sloane Stephens launched Doc and Glo: bodycare inspired by her wellness rituals.
Loved this press conference moment from Donna Vekic. In addition to her haircut, she made a case for the tennis necklace with some new diamonds.
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Quick Thoughts
Things that Drew my Eye or Ire…
The WSJ reported on GenZ’s preference for Lululemon dupes. As general activewear brands lose their appeal, it makes room for niche players catering to specific sporting communities. It’s easy to dupe leggings, it’s harder to dupe culture.
If I were District Vision I’d be a little peeved at the Alo positioning for their new running shoe: “When it comes to running, we envision these three circles: You have performance, you have fashion and you have this mindfulness element, and Alo is the brand that’s sitting at the center of all three.” The shoe also looks a lot like something DV would put out. I suppose there is room for more than one “mindfulness” brand in running, but considering how pointed DV has been in this space it feels either deliberate or just sloppy on Alo’s part.
I caught a little bit of UTMB this weekend, thanks to their epic livestream (and my son’s love for waking up at 5 a.m.). I need to do a deep dive on trail/ultra “fashion,” but in the meantime, I liked North Face’s blue paint-drip shorts as worn by winner Katie Schide.
How gorgeous is this?
A’ja Wilson is making statements during her tunnel walk in a plain white tee. “I have to want to put on clothes. Right now, where I am, I don’t feel like I deserve to put on clothes. … Right now my main focus is just getting wins. So if we start getting a couple wins under our belt, I might pop out and show a little something. Right now, I am digging in the bottom of my T-shirt drawer, and I’m putting on a shirt and I’m getting out.”
Togethxr keeps the hits coming, launching a tennis ball yellow version of their Everyone Watches Women’s Sports Tee.
For more on fashion and tennis, BoF explored “Why Fashion Loves the Next Generation of Tennis Stars”
Great article. If you want to talk about the trends at UTMB. Happy to connect.