Cloud Gate, known locally in Chicago as “the bean,” represents one of the most photographed locations in the city. Sitting in Millennium Park off Michigan Avenue, the reflective sculpture attracts a global demographic. Wilson, a company that originated in 1914 with roots in downtown Chicago, recently relocated downtown to a perch overlooking the park and its reflective masterpiece. It’s that downtown vibe, the connection to culture, that propels Wilson Tennis forward with a global perspective on growing the racket sports business.
From special-edition rackets new for the brand, fresh perspectives on bringing on-trend design to equipment and collaborations with brands embedded in street culture, Wilson Tennis has taken a new approach to attracting consumers, an approach it plans to build on while bringing new product to the market.
“The history of tennis was ‘how does this racket help me perform better?’ It is not just about performance, but the culture of tennis itself,” says Jason Collins, Wilson head of product for racket sports and hard goods. “For consumers, the performance is assumed. We have to overachieve on the performance side and have design agility that keeps us always on trend.”
Always on trend requires company speed. Efforts in 2018 helped showcase that speed. From a design point of view, the brand added to its noir collection by introducing a camo racket collection in the summer that pushed Wilson Tennis into the biggest social interaction the brand had ever seen, especially from youth, a market Wilson hasn’t traditionally captured.
Then, to capitalize on the popularity of the face of its brand, global megastar Roger Federer, Wilson created a first-ever one-off special edition racket for use in an event. When Federer’s Laver Cup exhibition came to Wilson’s hometown of Chicago in September, Wilson created an all-red RF97 Pro Staff racket for the three-day event, one that Federer played with during the Laver Cup and Wilson sold out of almost immediately. Even the walls around the downtown office were pillaged of the all-red frame, Collins says.
But that wasn’t all. Wilson surprised culture followers with a collaboration with Supreme — one of the most on-trend streetwear brands, based in New York City —on tennis balls. The balls sold out in 30 seconds in the United States, 47 seconds in Europe and 81 seconds in Japan, largely delayed simply because they launched there in the middle of the night. The Supreme collaboration added another unexpected moment for Wilson, getting tennis visible to a different demographic.
Add another collaboration with Forever 21 in August, and Wilson introduced itself to an entirely new demographic. “The Forever 21 partnership is looking to get to the younger audience that may not be looking to get into tennis,” Collins says. “It is out of the normal, out of the routine. It is a challenge to execute, but super fun to execute. The younger people are not just about the performance, they are about design as well. We need to look at different areas of design for aspiration and how we come to market in a fresh way to get passion and respect elevated.”
Getting to the point of special-edition rackets and collaborations signifies one major step forward for Wilson, but the brand — one of the three major tennis equipment manufacturers across the world that fairly evenly split market share in the world of tennis — has to change plenty of approaches.
“How are we going to revolutionize the sport through the eyes of the consumer?” Collins asks. “We need to make the experience enjoyable so they can buy more rackets. We need to focus on brand builders as opposed to just business builders. If the sport grows, we grow.”
The camo line offers an example. It took Wilson over a year to figure out how to execute the design with the complexity of painting the surface of a racket. But when it was all said and done, the buzz for the brand was worth the effort.
Wilson continues to push the thinking forward in tennis. Rackets have joined the brand’s custom site, giving customers the ability to express themselves through design. “We have had enormous success in baseball bats and gloves and we are capitalizing on that,” Collins says. Tennis customization launched about a year ago in the United States and in August in Europe. Not only does the custom orientation allow consumers freedom and the ability to buy something new at any given moment, but it also gives Wilson some insight into trends and color analysis while giving the brand one more avenue to engage with consumers. Collins says that while the percentage of the racket sales coming from the custom side is in the single-digit of percentage, it gives the brand a growth goal.
With a focus on creating an on-trend, high-performance product, Wilson Tennis knew it also needed to change the way it presented product at retail. That was on full display this summer at Wilson’s brand-new flagship store on the grounds of the U.S. Open in New York City.
Wilson redesigned the experience for a clean look that showcased product. It also allowed fans to tinker and play with design and product in a format they otherwise couldn’t. Kyle Schlegel, Wilson racket sports global marketing director, says that having product combined with experiential buying — such as being able to let a consumer check out an Ultra racket on the wall and then customize their own on site — creates a unique buying experience for tennis fans. “I think it adds something to the conversation in those environments,” he says. “It continues the conversation and is not just about (racket) tech, but about something for them.”
In New York, Wilson saw 800,000 people come through their space at the new Louis Armstrong Stadium during the event, the pinnacle brand experience that also gave Wilson a 12 percent lift in overall sales. With the success of both the store design and consumer interaction, Wilson has rolled out the concept at key retail locations throughout the world.
Wilson has another main avenue to get its brand in front of consumers: pro players. From the 8,700 club professionals that work with all demographics of tennis players the world over to Wilson’s eight key sponsored professionals — Wilson has over 300 touring pros contracted to play their rackets — the relationships are all about driving sales in performance racket, footwear, performance tennis balls and strings.
With tennis Wilson’s largest global business — baseball/softball takes the top share for Wilson in just the U.S. — the brand looks to the United States, Germany, France and Japan as the most important countries. From there, they have also pinpointed specific regions, whether Paris, Atlanta, Southern California, South Florida, London, Beijing and Tokyo as epicenters for their product. “Tennis is going to live and die in four countries,” Collins says. “If we have success there, we have success everywhere.”
With this focus, Wilson knows it needs to have a range of product that matches the interest of players, from the players looking to become the next Serena Williams or Federer to the players simply looking to have some fun with friends. While Federer certainly drives product sales — and Williams to a much smaller degree — having the game’s biggest stars using Wilson gives the brand credibility and awareness, Schlegel says.
The performance racket line reflects this, with four main lines leading the way and another, the Clash, set to make a debut in February, likely replacing one of the four. For now, though, the Pro Staff — Federer’s racket of choice — the Blade, what Williams plays with, the Burn and the Ultra offer variety for players. And with multiple styles within each franchise, Collins says they have the versatility to reach a wide cross-section of players.
Each line has a key theme for Wilson and not just in color (Pro Staff: black; Blade: green; Burn: orange: Ultra: blue). “We have to make sure the hero model of each speaks to what the consumer experiences,” Collins says. “It speaks to what is the ultimate benefit, but then within each there is wiggle room.”
On the tour, the Pro Staff and Blade lead the way, but another top-selling franchise is the versatile Ultra line. To effectively play the Pro Staff and Blade, players need advanced skills, where the industry has about 70 percent of players falling more within the Ultra and Burn range. Wilson hopes its new Clash racket will blur the line.
Right now, Wilson has about 40 to 45 percent market share on the junior and college circuit with players simply playing the Blade. And that number isn’t just of Wilson players, but all brands. The Blade signifies Wilson’s top-selling racket globally with the Ultra 100CV right behind.
With Wilson’s range of racket technology now coupling with a focus on capturing on-trend culture and design moments both within and outside the sport, Wilson Tennis hopes to reflect the global tennis culture much in the same way as happens outside its downtown Chicago headquarters.
