New Balance Is Serious About Tennis, Just Look At The Australian Open
by Tim Newcomb · ForbesA little over a decade ago, New Balance was known as a running company. It doesn’t require a look much deeper than the likes of Coco Gauff, Tommy Paul or Jordan Thompson to see the tennis pedigree. But focus that gaze a bit more to the south, where New Balance is in its second year as the official performance apparel and footwear partner of the Australian Open—the brand calls it year 1.5 since last year’s debut came together so quickly—signifying New Balance as a major player in the world of tennis.
“The AO is something that connects really well with New Balance because the mix of sport and culture they have is incredible,” Evan Zeder, New Balance director of global sports marketing for tennis, tells me. “I think the AO is a perfect mix and it is just a big party.”
The partnership came together late in 2023, giving the brand little time to ramp up for the January 2024 event. This year marks a true entry into the partnership, which includes a large retail presence on site—both in the AO-branded stores and via a stand-alone New Balance retail outlet located prominently on the Rod Laver Arena Terrace overlooking the Grand Slam Oval—with plenty more than just a few performance items with an “AO” logo slapped on. Along with product, the partnership opens media rights for the brand, movement into additional tennis events in the country and a positioning that signifies to tennis fans that New Balance is all-in on the sport.
“The vision of making the event foundational in the way the brand shows up has been really important,” Darren Tucker, New Balance vice president of Asia Pacific, tells me. “Elevating our brand to wholesale partners has been really important and the way our partners have seen the brand changes. This enables us to bring (our growth) life.”
MORE FOR YOU
‘American Primeval’ Dethroned In Netflix’s Top 10 List By A New Show
New Amazon Ransomware Attack—‘Recovery Impossible’ Without Payment
Bitcoin Price Surges After Leak Reveals Imminent Trump Game-Changer—$100 Trillion Predicted
“Ultimately it is about enhancing the sport and bringing people in to really get a love for tennis,” Zeder says. “We don’t want our space to just be tennis. We have our lifestyle shoes (in the store), we have more than tennis product.”
The partnership between the Boston-based brand and one of the sport’s four majors is something everyone expects to evolve. Zeder says the AO is known for working to enhance the fan experience to show up differently every year. “They are trying to be innovative and willing to push the limits,” Zeder says. “They want people to say you’ve got to make it to Melbourne. For us, we want to be a part of that. We showed up in tennis and we want to be authentic to our brand and the sport and be able to create something that is unique to the AO.”
At the start, New Balance wanted to be different. That’s why the store, which first appeared last year, is bigger this year. A temporary build, it looks permanent—the exterior grey is the same pantone as the brand’s trademark shade—and helped set record sales early in 2025 for merchandising, according to the AO.
“If it’s not hard, it’s not fun,” Tucker says about evolving year after year. “If it is too easy you aren’t trying hard enough to challenge everything.”
Along with AO-branded performance gear, a mix of both performance and lifestyle footwear and additional lifestyle-focused apparel, New Balance also made waves across the grounds with a range of Melbourne-specific T-shirts. From the “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” shirt that plays well with foreigners, to a more playful shirt featuring a tennis racket swatting the city’s nuisance fly, among others.
“It is playful performance,” Tucker says. “To bring the energy of something is exciting. You just feel this is a fan-based event and it is entertainment.”
Zeder credits the local team for executing the vision. “This year is a huge step to where we want to continue to go,” he says. “We want to enhance every year.”
Along with the retail space, New Balance has a VIP space on the upper floor of the store, helping the brand create relationships in the industry while hosting. “For us, it is going to continue to find how we can evolve and how we can push the AO,” Zeder says. “That is the type of partnership that is exactly why we are aligned.”
New Balance has had a presence in tennis for over a decade but has taken an independent approach to the sport. With a roster of just six professional players, Zeder says the goal has never been to be the biggest, but to be the best. And they want to “co-author” stories with partners, which is the reason why Gauff has the only true signature shoe for an active player in the sport.
“When we talk about this brand, we are patient,” Zeder says, adding they wanted to sign a top female for years but desired a partnership, something they got in Gauff. Sponsoring a tournament affords the same approach, as the brand plans to work with the tournament to enhance storytelling and sweat the details.
By becoming a player in a major, though, it sends a message throughout the industry. “When you look across the player lounge from Rod Laver (Arena) and see a New Balance store, you know we are committed to the game,” Zeder says. “Even though we have one of the smallest rosters on tour, we are showing up in a big way. We have an incredible roster, but ultimately this allows us to enhance their story.”
Tennis has become an important piece of New Balance. “Your iconic athletes travel,” Tucker says about the global sport. Fans in Australia aren’t going to get the top soccer or basketball players in the country, but the likes of Gauff show up annually. That means the brand has a greater global footprint. Add in the historical crossover from tennis into fashion and it fits with New Balance’s goal of intersecting sport and culture.
The focus on Australia also fits with a brand that just last year opened a brand-new retail presence in the heart of Melbourne, all part of giving New Balance a “visual example,” Tucker says, of its aspirations.
In true AO fashion, Zeder says the tournament pushing its partners motivates New Balance. “If in a few years from now you come to the AO and it just (how it is now), I’ll be shocked,” he says. “I don’t have any answers for what that will be, but that’s the best part about it. We are co-authoring with organizations, athletes or collaboration partners who want to truly work together. The evolution of where this can go is what excites us.”