The Paris 2024Olympic Shoe Report
The Paris 2024Olympic Shoe Report
Players embrace national pride—and colors—in Paris.
Players embrace national pride—and colors—in Paris.
By Tim NewcombJuly 30, 2024
Brands seem to have two different approaches to the Olympics. The biggest—think: Nike, Asics, and Adidas—take an all-encompassing approach, introducing Olympics-themed colorways that will span across all sports. That means most athletes wearing these brands don’t have colorways that match their country, but colorways that help market the brand. Other brands, such as New Balance, Yonex, and Wilson, take a more player-by-player approach that often gives athletes colorways to fit their country’s flag. Here’s a taste of the models treading on the red clay of Roland-Garros.
COCO GAUFF
New Balance Coco CG1 “Star-Studded”
New Balance announced this fully U.S.A.-themed colorway even before Wimbledon started, reminding us at the time that we had plenty to look forward to when we returned to Paris. The latest iteration of Coco Gauff’s signature shoe—and another model available to fans at retail—is drenched in red with white stars atop blue in various places both on the midsole and collar. Paired with her U.S.A. kit, largely in blue, Gauff’s footwear certainly pops with plenty of American flair.
Images courtesy of New Balance
Images courtesy of New Balance
NOVAK DJOKOVIC
Asics Court FF3 Novak “Paris”
While most Asics athletes enjoy the brightness of neon yellow and orange as part of the brand’s Olympics colorway, Novak Djokovic has a decidedly more Serbian-themed design for his player-edition shoes, a style that is also available at retail. A white base, his Court FF3 design features accents of red, blue, and gray, sometimes in confetti style across the midsole and tongue. After having worn an all-red version during Roland-Garros, Djokovic’s white-based look gives him a fresh approach to the Paris clay.
Image courtesy of Asics
Image courtesy of Asics
TOMMY PAUL
New Balance Fresh Foam X CT-Rally
New Balance has embraced the Stars and Stripes aplenty in Paris. From Gauff’s signature shoe to special-edition colorways of both the Fresh Foam X CT-Rally and FuelCell 996v5 available to fans, we have so much red, white, and blue to choose from, it is impressive. The 996 comes with one shoe blue and the other red, both with U.S.A. on the back, while the Fresh Foam style worn by Tommy Paul is white-based with one shoe featuring a red tongue and the other a blue tongue. Paul went full ’Merica with his training outfits and has really played up the look while in Paris.
Image courtesy of New Balance
Image courtesy of New Balance
CARLOS ALCARAZ + RAFAEL NADAL
Nike Electric Pack
In what could be the final colorway Rafael Nadal wears on the Paris clay, Nike gave the King of Clay a player-edition version of the Electric Pack. While the brand made the Olympics-themed colorway available at retail in the Vapor 11 and GP Challenge 1, they didn’t do the same for the Cage. Don’t fret; Rafa got his shoes, with his signature logo still seen on the heel and tongue. In what is a fun argument for doing brand themes, Nadal and Alcaraz paired in doubles sporting matching footwear colorways.
Image courtesy of Nike
Image courtesy of Nike
— Yonex really embraced country-specific colorways for this Olympics. The two best are the shoes for Casper Ruud, which is a mostly blue design with the Norwegian flag and “Ruud” on the heel, and the Stan Wawrinka personalization, which features the Swiss flag and his name on his heel.
— Nike’s Electric Pack, which appears across 55 footwear styles at the Paris Olympics, merges an ostrich print first seen on the brand’s Air Safari in 1987, designed by Tinker Hatfield, with a bright orange.
— Asics embraced a bright yellow and accents of orange for its “Paris” colorway. These are certainly the loudest of the shoes we’ll see in Paris.
— Adidas went with an Olympics-themed brand colorway, dubbed the Flame Collection, that is available for Adidas tennis athletes across the Barricade, Cybersonic, Ubersonic, and Avacourt.
— With Andy Murray retiring after the Olympics, this could be the final time we see Under Armour tennis shoes.
— Marta Kostyuk is quickly becoming one of the most fashionable tennis athletes on tour, and her Wilson kit offers up a blue Rush Pro 4.5 to match the blue dress the Ukrainian athlete is wearing.
— Oh, Leylah Fernandez, how you intrigue us. The Lululemon athlete doesn’t have a footwear deal and is sure making things interesting in that department. She wore Puma basketball shoes at the 2023 US Open, has switched between On and Asics in 2024, and is now showing off a completely new option in Paris in all red. Fernandez appears to be one of the first to ever wear Aesem Athletica, a brand that says it will have a limited-edition model available at retail “soon.”
Follow Tim Newcomb’s tennis gear coverage on Instagram at Felt Alley Tennis.
SIGN UP — YOU'RE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR SECOND SERVE.
RECOMMENDED
December Surprise
NEXT GEN
Garden Party
THE GARDEN CUP