The French Open Trophy Is The Size Of A Perrier Bottle
I'm shook!
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TNT is thanking the media rights gods after airing the longest French Open final in the Open Era and witnessing another young American player win her second Grand Slam.
Carlos Alcaraz came back to beat no. 1 Jannik Sinner (who is making his return after a 90-day ban due to doping…) in five sets that went on for 5 hours and 29 minutes.
And my personal favorite player right now (and TikTok queen), Coco Gauff, beat butt-hurt Aryna Sabalenka in three sets.
and I spoke about this on yesterday, but we just love this new era of tennis stars.Alcaraz’s bad haircut! Gauff thanking Tyler, The Creator in her speech! Give! Me! The! Content!
My favorite thing that came out of the French Open besides both Alcaraz and Gauff immediately running to hug Spike Lee before their own families is the TikTok Gauff posted on a private jet after winning.
In the video Gauff shows off her French Open trophy, which is…smaller than a participation trophy I won in the YMCA basketball league I played in when I was five???
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Why is this thing so small and not the Perrier bottle being almost the same size I—
I do feel like even athletes on this level would like a big trophy…I know I would.
I’m Obsessed With This Tennis Brand
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Speaking of tennis, I love tennis fits and I especially love cool tennis brands.
I’m always on the hunt for a new tennis skirt, so I reached out to Spence, a new tennis clothing and racquet sports brand on the market, to learn more about how they’re doing things differently in the space.
I chatted with Spence’s founder, Amanda Greeley, about why she started Spence, the gap she’s trying to fill in the market, and more.
Enjoy!
P.S. They’re doing a pop-up in London during Wimbledon soon if that’s up your alley…
What inspired you to start Spence?
The clear idea for Spence came about in 2018 when a friend and I were discussing how the athletic space was changing, namely looking at all of the cool new running and cycling brands.
We reached the conclusion that there was nothing similar in tennis, and he remarked, “You’ve played tennis your whole life - you should do it.”
From that point forward, ‘Spence’ was an idea that I couldn’t stop thinking about.
When I looked at my drawer of spot clothes at that time, it struck me that my gear for running, yoga was far nicer than what I had for tennis - much of it was so old, stuff I had truly had since college or even high school (I was 30 at the time).
I started talking to other friends/players about what they were wearing, where they were shopping and no one had a go-to brand/destination outside of Tennis Warehouse.
I started it because, in some ways, Spence felt like a culmination of everything I knew best; having grown up around and spent my entire career to date in the retail/brand-building industry and having played tennis competitively since I was barely big enough to hold a racquet.
I basically became obsessed with the idea of creating a ‘big tent’ tennis and racquet sports brand that had an awareness of the sports’ history, but that ultimately was about pushing the sport forward, thinking about the player as a dynamic person with an interest/awareness in broader culture.
You say that you launched Spence to shake things up. What gap do you feel like Spence is filling in the market?
Ha yes, we do say that we are here to ‘shake things up’. I think that idea is a commentary on how frequently tennis is presented in a way that feels closed-off and stuffy, too posed.
I would say: Spence was created to shake up a category that’s felt predictable and a little stuck. Racquet sports have been boxed into a narrow, safe idea of what it looks and feels like.
We saw a space for a brand that’s a little provocative and visually striking - something that catches your eye and makes you think differently about the game.
Spence fills that gap by merging good design with a bold point of view that breaks away from the usual tropes.
At its core, Spence is about creating a new kind of culture around racquet sports - one that’s more dynamic and more interesting, and hopefully more fun.
How did you decide on the core collection of pieces you launched with?
This was one of the hardest things to land on.
Strategically, it’s never good to start with ‘too much’ or be over-assorted. That said, I felt strongly that we launch with both men’s and women’s, and have long loved the idea of an assortment that invites players to mix and match rather than pushing set “outfits.”
We thought hard about launching with pieces that felt essential, versatile, and then also designed everything to feel fully functional on a tennis court, but also very much wanted to make pieces that have a reason for being beyond the court too.
In a nutshell, I Gaël Monfils into the assortment that I thought accomplished this.
I'm especially intrigued by the materials you sourced for the collection. The Court Stretch Slip Skirt, in particular, feels like nothing I've ever worn before. Can you walk me through the process of fine-tuning the fabrics you chose?
One thing that’s interesting about tennis is how long people have been playing it/wearing apparel designated for the sport.
A lot of tennis over the years has been played in cotton. Only in the last 20 years has the norm for ‘performance’ apparel become some version of stretch polyester.
At the same time, material science has gotten a lot more interesting in recent years - it’s a great time to rethink what it means to be ‘performance’.
For me, performance means (1) comfort - that it breathe, stretch when needed, feel good against skin, (2) It needs to wash well, be easy to care for, (3) bonus points for things that actually get better with time/more washes.
I think that’s something we used to see from vintage pieces, but rarely do in the world of performance materials today.
In sourcing, we mostly looked for fabrics that had a natural hand, but then have been cut, a little, with a synthetic to make them stretchy or more durable.
The Slip Skirt - we fell in love with the idea of it having that pique texture that feels classically tennis to me, but I also felt strongly that it should stretch.
Most of our fabrics are recycled, made from sustainably sourced fibers, and are also woven to be durable…no pilling for example.
If someone is new to your brand, which pieces would you recommend they try first?I’m a big believer in our shorts for both men and women.
The Warm-Up Sweatshirt is also this very cool, substantial piece that looks great styled on men and women alike.
If Bravo and ESPN had a baby, it would be Impersonal Foul. This newsletter is free, but consider becoming a paying subscriber for $6/month to support the work that I’m doing.
For partnership inquiries or to just say hello, email madeline@impersonalfoul.com and buy Impersonal Foul merch here.