Why Are Tennis Players Wearing The Same Outfit?

Whether you are a true tennis fan that watches all the major tournaments or someone that just turned on the TV during Wimbledon, you have at least once asked yourself why so many players are wearing the same outfits. Are they obligated to only wear a number of outfits or do pro players just randomly choose to wear the same kind of outfits? We will go through everything you need to know about why that is.

Why do tennis players wear the same outfits? Many tennis players are wearing the same outfits because they are sponsored by the same clothing brands. The player’s sponsors want them to wear their newest collection and that is why many players seem to wear the same outfits.

Table of Contents show

Why Many Tennis Players Are Wearing The Same Outfits

It may seem like all players are just randomly picking the same outfits before a game, but that is certainly not the reality. Well, they are in many cases wearing the same kind of outfits, but that is not by accident. Most pro players have sponsors that allow them to earn a big chunk of money, and the brands want their sponsored players to wear clothes with their logos. You can read more about how much tennis players earn from sponsors here.

The top-ranked players that get the most exposure are extremely expensive to sponsor, and there are only a few different brands that have enough money to do so. Therefore, there is only a limited amount of brands that endorses all the top-ranked players.

When there only are a few brands that have enough money to spend on the top-ranked players, many players will be sponsored by the same brands. Therefore, the players that are sponsored by the same brands will have, if not the same outfit, something very similar.

Let’s take a look at what clothing brand the top 10 ranked ATP players are wearing. As you can see, there are many players that are sponsored by the same brands

1. Novak Djokovic – Lacoste

2. Rafael Nadal – Nike

3. Roger Federer – Uniqlo

4. Daniil Medvedev – Lacoste

5. Dominic Thiem – Adidas

6. Alexander Zverev – Adidas

7. Stefanos Tsitsipas – Adidas

8. Kei Nishikori – Uniqlo

9. Karen Khachanov – Nike

10. Roberto Bautista-Agut – Lacoste

Brand	ATP Top 10 Players
Adidas	3 Players
Lacoste	3 Players
Nike	2 Players
Uniqlo	2 Players

Because of this, you will see those 3 players that are sponsored by Adidas (Tsitsipas, Zverev & Dominic Thiem) wearing very similar outfits. The same goes for the Lacoste players ( Djokovic, Medvedev, Bautista-Agut) and the Nike players (Nadal, Khachanov). Also, as you can see in the picture at the top, Federer, and Nishikori, both are sponsored by the Japanese company Uniqlo, are wearing the same outfits.

There Are Some Exceptions

Although, the reason why so many players are wearing the same outfit is due to them having the same sponsorships, there are some exceptions to this. An example of this is in the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament, Wimbledon.

In Wimbledon, all players are obligated to wear an all-white outfit. That is mainly because the tournament has a history of having a strict dress code that tells everyone to wear an all-white outfit, even the underwear needs to be all white. The rules are so strict that players can get disqualified if they are not following this dress code.

Of course, the players are still wearing clothes from their sponsors. But, since they are all wearing white, it will look like all the players at Wimbledon are wearing the same outfit. Which they are in regards to color, but not more than that.

Final Thoughts

This is not the biggest issue in the world, but it’s still quite annoying to see 2 players wearing the exact same outfit during a match. Brands like Nike, Adidas, Uniqlo, and Lacoste are billion-dollar companies, but they can’t create a unique outfit for all the sponsored players? Such an easy fix, but I guess the brands really want to market a few specific outfits.

I can understand the different brands, but I think they would benefit from creating a unique outfit for all the players. It doesn’t even need to be that “unique”, just change the player’s colorways and the problem could easily be fixed.

The brands would not only benefit from this but also the sport in general. When someone that is new to the sport comes to watch a tennis match, and the players are all wearing the same outfits, it will be hard to know which player is who. If all players had a unique colorway, it would be much easier for newbies to follow the sport and the sport would benefit from that.

Think about soccer, if all players are wearing the same outfit in a match, it would be impossible for a newbie to tell which team is which. It may not be as problematic in tennis, where it’s only 2 players, but it’s still very annoying to always think about that during a game.