NEW YORK (AP) — Tennis apparel sponsorship is a big business. It is also one that, among the top players, is dominated by a small group of industry titans.
Brands like Nike, Adidas and Asics provide the outfits for most of the top 100, with their recognizable logos splashed across the shirts and skirts of Grand Slam favorites.
But if one looks beyond that upper echelon and into the U.S. Open’s qualifying tournament – where lower-ranked players compete for spots in the main draw – there’s a world of local startups and small clothing businesses making their way into the booming tennis business.
For many players in the qualifying tournament, their apparel sponsors are companies local to their home country. These companies often specifically seek out their countrymen.
“It’s key to sponsor and help our Swiss players,” said Laura Tolub, the chief operating officer of Fourteen Company. Fourteen is a small sportswear brand based in Geneva, Switzerland, that sponsors a couple of Swiss players in the qualifying draw. “It doesn’t mean we’re only sponsoring Swiss players, but it’s important to us to … be there for them.”
That country connection is often important on the player’s side, too. Swiss player Marc-Andrea Hüsler, ranked 228th, won his second round qualifying match Thursday afternoon in Fourteen apparel.
“It’s a Swiss brand, so I wanted to do something with the Swiss if possible,” he said about his decision to join the brand two years ago. “They were new and they were building up.”
They’ve built into a tight-knit community, according to Tolub.
“(Some players) want to have the feeling they are part of a family, which Fourteen is,” she said. “It’s more of a family than a big brand.”
Arianne Hartono went a similar route. She is sponsored by The Indian Maharadja, a Dutch company known for its hockey clothing and based out of Nieuwkuijk, a small town of about 5,000 people.
“They were a very small startup, like three, four years ago,” Hartono said. “They approached me through social media, they just came at me and said, ‘Hey, we’re a small company, we want to start coming into tennis.’”
She agreed, and their spiral logo was on full display as the Dutch player, ranked 158th, made her way into the third round of the qualifying tournament with a tight victory Thursday afternoon.
Other qualifiers look for the right fit beyond country lines. Argentine Marco Trungelliti, ranked No. 183rd, found one with personal ties.
His match clothes are made by a small upstart in Mexico called Lega, an apparel brand that’s run by “a friend of a friend,” who the Argentine said he has become quite close with through their time working together. His shirts have been getting attention from keen-eyed fans – at the French Open, his top had a large Eiffel Tower design, and now in the U.S. Open’s qualifying rounds, it’s a Statue of Liberty.
“It’s a complete new run,” he said of the New York City shirt, which was designed and manufactured by Lega specifically for his U.S. Open matches.
“I’m not a designer at all, but I had some opinions in there,” he said after winning his second round qualifying match. “But this one was completely on (the Lega designer), and I loved it.”
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