The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 243 — 🎾 Smokin' Aces

The sneaker world should have its eye on tennis right now.

Sep 12, 2022

Gooooood morning, family. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate y’all.

Hope you had a fantastic weekend! I spent mine having good times with friends and family. Always a good look.

Let’s jump in.

A renewed marriage between tennis & kicks

people inside tennis stadium — *Photo by Sudan Ouyang on Unsplash*

The US Open absolutely captivated the masses this weekend. Between Carlos Alcaraz’s historic run to becoming the world’s no. 1 or Frances Tiafoe’s shocking run to the semifinals or Iga Światek’s continued dominance, there was constant brilliance on display in New York City.

Seeing all these names trend on Twitter constantly over the weekend got me thinking about how fertile the ground is for a tennis resurgence in the sneaker world.

What’s happening: It’s really already started in a sense.

Coco Gauff already has a signature shoe with New Balance with lots more coming. She has the potential to be the brightest star on their roster.
Tiafoe grabbed everyone’s attention in Naomi Osaka’s Zoom GP Turbo’s.
Roger Federer and On just dropped a KITH collab as he moves into his post-tennis phase.

There’s an opportunity to create new sneakers along the lines of what had people buzzing back in the late 80s and early 90s. The Air Tech Challenge line, the Mac Attack (which is coming back by the way), the Stan Smith.

But there are impediments: It’s no secret that over the last few years especially, tennis has struggled to capture Millennial and Gen Z audiences.

That struggle hasn’t been nearly as bad as it sounds, though, as Matthew Willis of The Racquet so thoroughly explained.
The audience for the sport remains solid, but as Serena Williams and the Big 3 age out, there will be a need for stars to fill that void.

But there’s a legitimate audience there. The stars are there, too. The best part of it is a number of them are 25 years old or younger. Alcaraz is 19. Swiatek is 21. Casper Ruud is 23. The list goes on and on and on.

The future is looking bright on both the women’s and men’s sides. I can’t wait to see what it brings us.

Travis Scott might FINALLY step out there on his own

Travis Scott has been Nike’s most hyped endorsee for years. Whatever he touches turns to gold. We’ve seen it over and over again.

But my question surrounding him has always boiled down to one thing: Can he actually create?

He’s only given us new takes on already-hit models like the Jordan 1 and Nike Dunk, but never his own signature.

Twitter rumors say that might be changing soon. According to sneaker Twitter legend PO2345, Travis might have a signature look coming.

P.O! @_PO2345

As the partnership between @Jumpman23 @Nike @trvisXX is likely to continue, expect this dynamic unit to explore a new realm of possibilities in the future. This time the Air Jordan 7 & for the first time, a new shoe with an entirely new design from Houston’s own. ⏳

To be clear: This is unsubstantiated, so we don’t really need to worry about it to this point. But the thought exercise is pretty fun. This could be Travis’ magnum opus for Nike if it happens. I think it can carry Air Yeezy levels of hype.

Here’s why:

Scott’s creativity when it comes to sneakers is evident. He’s tweaked classic models and made them hits.
That bodes well for what a Travis Scott signature model could look like.

We don’t need to speculate about it anymore until something actually comes from it. But the talk is out there. And that’s good enough for now.

I don’t think Drake was supposed to get these jokes off, but…

Nike held the Just Do It awards where they recognize employees for their work across the company, which is a pretty cool thing to do. They had Drake hosting it. It seemed very fly. And, BOY, was he on one when it came to the jokes.

First, he dropped one about Ann Hebert that seemed to really drop some jaws.