Associated Press photographer Alastair Grant captured the problem with Nike’s Premier Slam dress in a match between tennis players Eugenie Bouchard and Magdalena Rybarikova.
Flipping out over Nike’s new tennis dress
No pleats, please.
Nike created a new tennis dress for the players at Wimbledon—and the pleated style is not going over well.
The NikeCourt Premier Slam dress adheres to the Wimbledon dress code for female players—it’s white and a dress—but the two-piece baby-doll design tends to fly up during the match. Nike is making emergency alterations and some of the players are improvising by adding a sash to keep the dress in place. Canadian player Eugenie Bouchard—who appears in a Nike ad wearing the dress—is defending the design.
And some people are unhappy that we’re talking about what they wore—instead of their performance on the court, .
The kerfuffle reminds me of the last time Nike tried out pleats. In the athletic giant’s collab with Chitose Abe, Nike x Sacai, there were plenty of critics who slammed the Japanese designer’s effort to add a fashionable twist to athletic apparel.
