97. DESIGN FAULT

Sexist though this may sound, I do wonder if the majority of the designers of women’s tennis clothes are men, who fail to understand the fundamental need for functionality and adequate support with female tennis attire, especially with regard to tops and dresses.

Tennis players need a lot of kit. Their shorts, skorts, dresses, tops and tees are their uniform and they wear them day in day out. They sweat profusely and when on surfaces such as red clay, their kit gets stained and as a result the life cycle of their clothes is short compared to the uniforms of other professions. Add to that the need by the brands for the sponsored players to wear specific kit at designated times of the year (ie around the Grand Slams) then the range of kit that the players travel with is quite short lived.

Don’t get me wrong, some of the kit is amazing. Beautiful colours, nice designs and largely comfortable to wear. But, the biggest mistake the designers make is with regard to the women’s tops. Pretty tops, with cut out sections on the back, don’t really work with sports bras, which more often than not, are racer back in design, and are so for a reason – that reason being to provide maximum support to the female chest area. There is nothing worse than trying to run around with insufficient support. It’s uncomfortable, damaging (to under lying muscles) and can be extremely painful. Some brands offer sports bras that are cut to shadow the shape of the top/dress but to be honest this rarely works as the support they offer is insufficient, hence why you sometimes see players wearing mismatching sports bra’s underneath their tops.

Now obviously I cannot speak with any authority at all about the functionality and comfort of the kit worn by men on the tour, maybe someone reading this blog can? But, I can say from years of traveling with a female player, that more thought and research needs to be dedicated to the design of the tops/dresses for women. For sure the players want to look nice but they also want to be comfortable and feel that they can play freely with sufficient support. Come on designers, speak to the women players and let’s have more kit that is functional as well as fashionable!

#realitytennis

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