I have been enjoying the US Open, especially Andre’s farewell. His first round match was a lot more enjoyable than the women’s final today!
While talking about the popularity of the sport, I got thinking about how there is no way for people to know that you are a tennis fan.
If someone walked past you wearing a Lacoste t-shirt you probably aren’t thinking “I bet that is an andy roddick / tennis fan!”.
Roger Federer is wearing the bizarre jackets, but I doubt people will start wearing those. Some of the players have unique style, but again, the public are as likely to pick this up as they are to wear clothes from the runway.
What can tennis do to change this? Cricket had the same problem. At one time we all had boring white outfits (at least we had the crests of teams!). Then the marketing machine got in action and with shorter cricket, we started to see countries and counties having their own brands, and players names were put on the back. Then you could get an England outfit with ALMAER on the back to show your pride.
Is there anyway that tennis could do the same? Hmm.
Also, the players could become more NASCAR-esque:
… just think of the money they are leaving on the table.
September 10th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
What for ?
The marketing budget for any company won’t increase if you have a chance to put your logo in some other place … Or if it’s increasing then the end consumer will fit the bill.
I think there is already too much advertisement, why shoul we get even more ?
July 20th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
good,thanks
September 11th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I have started a company ‘Stick It Wear?!’ to address this very issue of selling fan shirts for the tennis fan. Check out http://www.stickitwear.com