Tennis-inspired shoes are all the rave during The Championships at Wimbledon 2026. Spectators are taking a page out of Zendaya‘s book, indulging in a bit of method dressing for the sporting event.
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Zendaya caused a stir during the April 2024 press tour for “Challengers” when she wore custom Loewe tennis ball pumps to a photo call for the film at Hotel Hassler in Rome. The shoes featured a classic pump silhouette in white with a sharp pointed toe. Each stiletto heel incorporated a vibrant green mini tennis ball as a nod to her role as a tennis player in the sultry sports film.
A close-up of Zendaya’s shoes.
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The shoes have since been inspiring others to do the same, incorporating the sport into their footwear. Influencer Aki Curtis attended Wimbledon 2024 with a DIY pair of Aquazzura tennis ball shoes created by her husband.
Curtis wore the shoes to the men’s semifinals at The Championships at Wimbledon in London on July 12, 2024. She tells FN by email that Zendaya inspired her husband to transform a minimalist white Aquazzura Nuda sandal into a match-ready design in just under five minutes, which caught everyone’s eye at the event.
Aki Curtis at Wimbledon in 2024.
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The shoe moment went viral again this week when Curtis shared some flashback videos on Instagram Reels that showed the behind-the-scenes process of making the shoes, as well as the people’s reactions to the custom footwear at the event.
“Before I was invited to Wimbledon, these white heels had been sitting in storage for years, collecting dust,” Curtis said to FN. “As I was planning to buy a new pair of block heels that could sustain long-hour wear, Zendaya’s custom Loewe tennis ball heels from the ‘Challengers’ press tour came to my mind. The rest is history. Now I have a pair of upcycled tennis ball heels that are filled with lots of great memories from London.”
Fast-forward to 2026, and Maura Higgins is keeping the shoe trend going. The TV personality’s styling team transformed a pair of white Flor De Maria Jaimie slingback high heels into tennis-themed shoes. She showed them off during the Evian “Mountain of Youth” VIP Suite during the first day of Wimbledon on Monday.
Maura Higgins attends day one of the 2026 Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on Monday in London.
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Similarly to Curtis and Zendaya, Higgins wore the shoes with two added tennis balls that sat on the pointed-toe pumps’ stiletto heels. The reality star, who was styled by Kris Fe, paired the shoes with an all-white dress and a white bow in her hair.
Other spectators skipped the DIY process altogether and went for designer heels instead. One attendee wore Manolo Blahnik’s white pointed-toe tennis-themed slingbacks, finished with a dainty bow and tiny tennis balls on the vamp.
The 2026 edition of Wimbledon kicked off on Monday and concludes on July 12. Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Poland’s Iga Świątek compete to defend the men’s and women’s singles titles. Tennis stars like Osaka, Coco Gauff and Frances Tiafoe will also compete.