In a sponsor category long dominated by two giants, the athleisure maker joins a wave of challengers tempting star players with opportunities for creative input\u2014and lucrative financial terms.<\/p>\n
Tennis fans were excited to see Jack Draper in action this week at the revamped U.S. Open mixed doubles tournament, but in his first competitive matches since he injured his arm at Wimbledon in July, something was a little different about England\u2019s 23-year-old rising star. As Draper blasted lefty serves and forehands in a pair of victories Tuesday, he was sporting a completely new look\u2014a sleeveless shirt and shorts from Vuori.<\/p>\n
Earlier that day, Draper had announced he had signed with the Southern California-based athleisure brand to become the face of Vuori\u2019s nascent tennis division, ditching the Nike apparel he had worn for his entire pro career. Terms of the contract were not announced, but it is believed to be among the most lucrative apparel deals in tennis, where the category can pay top players $10 million or more a year.<\/p>\n
Draper, who fell short of Forbes\u2019 2025 list of the world\u2019s highest-paid tennis players<\/a> but could become a mainstay of the top 10 going forward, says the sponsor switch was a chance to take more control over the business side of his career.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always been someone who\u2019s been a bit different, and I wanted to go with a brand that\u2019s a bit unique,\u201d Draper tells Forbes. \u201cHonestly, I hadn\u2019t heard loads and loads about Vuori\u2019s clothing before, but the material, as soon as I got it, I didn\u2019t want to take it off.\u201d<\/p>\n Illustration by Alice Lagarde for Forbes; Photos by Daniel Kopatsch\/Getty Images; Daniel Kopatsch\/Getty Images; Minas Panagiotakis\/Stringer\/Getty Images; Shi Tang\/Getty Images; Dan Istitene\/Getty Images<\/p>\n World\u2019s Highest-Paid Tennis Players 2025 With limited exceptions\u2014Uniqlo signing Novak Djokovic and then Roger Federer<\/a>, for instance, or Coco Gauff working with New Balance<\/a>\u2014apparel giants Nike and Adidas have had a chokehold on the sport\u2019s top talent for decades, signing players in their teenage years and often maintaining relationships for their entire careers. Recently, however, upstart brands like On, Lululemon and Boss, as well as Vuori, have stormed into the space with big-name players like Iga Swiatek, Frances Tiafoe<\/a> and Taylor Fritz<\/a>, respectively.<\/p>\n \u201cI think tennis is obviously having a moment,\u201d says Joe Kudla, Vuori\u2019s founder and CEO. \u201cWe have patiently watched other big signings happen, but we believe in values alignment, and ultimately I think that paid off because we couldn\u2019t be more thrilled about our partnership with Jack.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than being one in a long list of names on a big company\u2019s roster, players see in the challenger brands an opportunity to be featured more prominently in marketing and storytelling materials, as well as the ability to meaningfully shape product development. After Ben Shelton, now the ATP Tour\u2019s sixth-ranked player, signed with On<\/a> in 2023, he told Forbes how the company\u2019s CEOs met with him personally in the recruitment process and didn\u2019t pressure him to wear the company\u2019s clothes until they had developed items that fit his preferences.<\/p>\n The sport\u2019s new entrants also have plenty to offer financially.<\/p>\n While the particulars of each tennis player\u2019s contract vary, compensation for apparel deals is traditionally closely tied to on-court performance, with players earning bonuses for improving their ranking or winning Grand Slams\u2014and facing reductions if their form falls off or they miss time with injuries.<\/p>\n Nike in particular is known for using a \u201cgrid\u201d to determine pay\u2014perhaps $10 million for a top veteran player who finishes the year at No. 1, but maybe only $750,000 if the same player on the same contract drops to No. 10. It\u2019s a matter of exposure: Players who win consistently ensure that the brand\u2019s logo appears prominently on television broadcasts, so sponsors are willing to pay for that privilege.<\/p>\n However, smaller brands seeking to lure top talent have in some cases been willing to offer deals that come with no reductions whatsoever, tennis insiders say. The tradeoff is that there may also be fewer bonuses available, but some players may value the higher guaranteed earnings\u2014to carry them through a potential injury or dip in performance\u2014more than they do the higher ceiling available when everything goes right. (The other approach clearly still offers some appeal, though: Nike counts Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka among its ambassadors.)<\/p>\n Having achieved a career-high ranking of No. 4 and turned in strong showings at recent Grand Slams, including a semifinal appearance at the 2024 U.S. Open, Draper hit the open market at exactly the right time. He quickly became this summer\u2019s hottest apparel free agent, with brands drooling over his youth, his years of modeling experience (including a current partnership with fashion house Burberry) and his status as the highest-ranked player from tennis-mad England in over two decades. (Andy Murray, a U.K. legend who reached No. 1 in 2016, is from Scotland.)<\/p>\n Nearly a dozen suitors showed interest in signing Draper after Nike\u2019s exclusive bargaining window expired just before Wimbledon. Top contenders including Nike and Lacoste all laid out their creative visions as negotiations intensified, and a few weeks later, Draper emerged with a contract from Vuori that Forbes estimates is comparable to the priciest Nike deals.<\/p>\n Pride of England: Draper, who played mixed doubles at the U.S. Open alongside Jessica Pegula, reached a career-high No. 4 in singles this year, becoming the highest-ranked Englishman in over two decades.<\/p>\n Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images<\/p>\n It is not Vuori\u2019s first foray into professional tennis, but it is by far its biggest. Since 2023, the brand has clothed ATP No. 55 Marcos Giron, but the apparel has thus far been so understated aesthetically\u2014the company\u2019s ethos in all of its products\u2014that fans didn\u2019t automatically associate it with high-level performance.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s our opportunity, but the challenge in doing so is that sometimes people don\u2019t take our technical credibility seriously,\u201d says Kudla, the CEO. \u201cWorking with athletes like Jack, not only does [he] obviously help us build brand awareness, but [he] also lends us more technical credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n Analysts estimate that sales at the privately held Vuori, which was founded in 2015, now exceed $1 billion per year, coming almost entirely from the U.S. as the company has only recently begun to open stores internationally. Rumors of a potential IPO circulated throughout 2024, but the company instead raised $825 million in November from growth investors General Atlantic and Strips at a $5.5 billion valuation.<\/p>\n Kudla says tennis is a growth area for the company, especially internationally\u2014which analysts similarly believe was a key reason that Lululemon signed Tiafoe in January. Vuori is also interested in landing a high-profile female player at some point in the future, Kudla says.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in New York, Draper has wasted little time jumping into appearances for his new sponsor. After a semifinal finish in the mixed doubles competition Wednesday, he spent a few minutes Thursday visiting Vuori\u2019s store in the Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan, before the first round of the men\u2019s singles draw begins Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a bit crazy for me to see my picture in the shop window, and there was a lot of people who came out,\u201d Draper says. \u201cSometimes in tennis you\u2019re just thinking about your job the whole time, and what you\u2019re doing, that you don\u2019t appreciate the amount of support you can get from people as well. So that was really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n \nMore From ForbesForbesThe World\u2019s Highest-Paid Tennis Players 2025By Brett Knight<\/a>ForbesTennis Legend Roger Federer Is Now A BillionaireBy Justin Birnbaum<\/a>ForbesRoger Federer-Backed Shoe Brand On Takes A Big Swing At TennisBy Matt Craig<\/a>ForbesHow Yonex Became A 55-Year Overnight Success In TennisBy Justin Birnbaum<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a sponsor category long dominated by two giants, the athleisure maker joins a wave of challengers tempting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[68176,5114,68172,68174,68173,68175,68171,68170,99,428,64096],"class_list":{"0":"post-102143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-how-rich-is-jack-draper","9":"tag-jack-draper","10":"tag-jack-draper-ambassador","11":"tag-jack-draper-earnings","12":"tag-jack-draper-endorsement","13":"tag-jack-draper-net-worth","14":"tag-jack-draper-sponsor","15":"tag-jack-draper-vuori","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tennis","18":"tag-vuori"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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