an inside look at roger’s golden shoes

If you’re curious about athletic shoe construction, I suggest listening to this slightly technical Tennis Warehouse interview with Nike‘s Footwear Product Director about Federer‘s custom Air Zoom IV vapors (aka his gold Wimbledon shoes). There’s some crazy lingo in there. Take notes!

I only half-listened, and here are fun bits:

#1: Federer has very wide feet.

#2: Nike is already in the process of designing Roger’s shoes for the 2008 Australian Open.

#3: The vapors have no insole; Federer provides his own orthodics.

Audio will only be up until July 14, likely. Answer TW’s questions about the Q&A and you can enter in a contest to win a pair of the golden shoes.

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and I thought the $2.5k/mo 1BR ATTACHED townhouse down the street was expensive

How much do you know about Wimbledon?

The suburb, I mean.

Tennis tournaments don’t exactly bring in riff-raff, so don’t be surprised that real estate prices are DISGUSTINGLY HIGH in the SW19 and SW20 post codes: there are currently 27 houses on the market for over 2 million pounds (double that to get dollar value).

After you read this Times article, you can drown your sorrows in coffee and tennis on TV. Happy Saturday!

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photos: janko downs gonzo

The heavily-accessorized Janko Tipsarevic — with his piercings, tattoos, and necklaces — upset fifth-seeded Fernando Gonzalez in the third round today.

Janko, who took the match 6-8 in the fifth set, looked good in his white Fila kit peppered with the brand’s classic red, blue, and white logo.

on roger’s wimbledon getup

After seeing Roger Federer‘s Wimbledon outfit (specifically, his bag), a reader writes:

“I just clicked and there was the giant girl bag. I half-expected Paris Hilton to pop out… I’m hoping he pulls out a new and more ridiculous accessory for each round culminating in a gold skull cap with ‘RF’ embroidered on it… My money for 3rd round accessory: gold sceptre!”

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from the sidelines: more anna-mania

Vogue editrix Anna Wintour — the woman who put body dysmorphia on the map — says hello to Roger Federer‘s girlfriend, Mirka Vavrinec, before his third round match against Marat Safin.

Kris provides a caption: “Mirkaaaaa, I love the sunglasses, but you could stand to lose five pounds. Okay, twenty.”

(Scoreline: The fashion-forward Federer took down his Russian opponent in straight sets.)

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fashion focus: venus’ drop earrings

Venus Williams wore simple drop earrings to accompany her Reebok attire for her second round match against Hana Sromova.

BROWSE: If you’re looking for ones like hers, you can get some inspiration here.

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bec hewitt watches her man

Bec Hewitt watches her hubby Lleyton play his second round match at Wimbledon. She’s wearing a shirt by John Galliano. Like it? You can purchase it here.

See pictures of Lleyton wearing a simple white shirt with green trim (by his clothing sponsor, Yonex)

fashion focus: venus has a midas touch

Venus Williams‘ current love affair with gold, as told by these pictures of her courtside chair at Wimbledon: above is the same gold hobo bag (with bamboo handle) that she brought to the players’ party last weekend, and below is the limited-edition gold Wilson [K]Factor racquet that the gear company designed for her and her sister Serena.

This follows her accessories from the French: gold hoop earrings and a gold butterfly hairpin.

What do you think of the bag? the racquet? Tell us.

golovin’s red lacoste knickers… wait, she wore a dress, too.

By now you’ve heard of Tatiana Golovin‘s red Lacoste “knickers”, a part of her uniform for this year’s Wimbledon. The hot pants, embroidered with a crocodile logo on the right leg (cute!), caused a ruckus with the media but not with the All-England Club, who — even with their strict dress code — gave the outfit a stamp of approval.

(Edit: a Wimbledon official was quoted as saying that the underwear was “cleared with the referee in advance by the player. On the basis that they are underwear, they do not have to conform to the predominantly white rule.”)

Sadly, all the coverage didn’t even mention her classy dress: a low-cut number with trim (in red) that complements the green grass. The wristband I could have lived without.

Here are the questions journalists asked her at the circle jerk press conference:

unearthed: djokovic and safin pose for adidas

In these adidas ads, Nole (left) wears clothing from the Summer YOC group, and Marat does his patented backhand kick wearing items from the Summer Competition group. All pieces can be found here.

(Marat Safin, Tennis and Art via butter)

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wimbledon: volandri vs. kiefer

Correction: Apparently, recycled air gets to me more than I think, or the beginning of summer isn’t agreeing with me… or something. Because clearly I can’t read scorelines to save my life. Thanks to Bonifacio for pointing out that Volandri LOST to Kiefer in straight sets. Double le sad, because I was hoping to see more of his D&G gear at Wimbledon. Original post below.

Giant-killer Filippo Volandri translated his hot claycourt season (he beat Federer, remember?) onto grass with a straight-set win over German Nicolas Kiefer in the first round of Wimbledon…

..which is great and all, but we’re a little more interested in how he looked in his Dolce & Gabbana-designed outfit.

Pleats, sir, may I have some more?

Glam girl Maria Sharapova graced the Wimbledon grass with this amazing take on her Nike 2007 summer dress:

The piece has two tiers of pleating attached from the waistline to the upper back. SlamXHype adds: “Maria’s favorite feature, a regal ruffled collar, adds the unexpected elegance of ‘pleating’ to her traditional tennis kit, giving it an almost angelic quality.” I think looks more “regal” than anything. Queen Elizabeth I?

It’s better than I’d imagined. What do you think of the outfit? Tell us.

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OT: Refinery29′s eBay blog

Make sure you’ve bookmarked this Refinery29 blog to keep up on their latest (and coolest) finds from eBay.

fashion focus: roger’s shoes

Here’s a look at Roger Federer‘s shoes, this time from the back.

Nike includes another variation on the theme of “four” (for the number of times he’s won Wimbledon). This time, they used Swiss flags. Cute. And how very K-Swiss.

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after roddick’s dance, djokovic responds

Not to be outdone by Andy Roddick‘s show on Monday, Serbian ham Novak Djokovic performed his own version of the Wimbledon dance, splitting and bending every which way on the grass court. He won his first round match against (Hot) Potito Starace in straight sets.

I’m all about his shirt: adidas, his clothing sponsor, dressed him in a white crewneck with simple red trim.

what happened to kuznetsova?

Okay, so I have to give Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova a pat on the back for trying something new at Wimbledon. First, she has her clothing sponsor Fila outfitting her with retro gear. We’ve been dying to see more of the label’s class red/white/blue scheme on the court, and they answered our prayers. (Off the court, they’ve already done this with the Settantatre collection, and I’ve gotten word that they have another stylish line launching later this year — we can’t wait!)

We love the headbands and the wristbands, but that hair is another story. She gets an “A” for effort, but I am not in love with this mash of braids, extensions, and cornrows:

On the left is Svetlana’s hair a few weeks ago at the French, and on the right is the current incarnation. (Btw, thanks to Off the Baseline for the tip.)

What do you think of her outfit? Of her hair? Tell us.

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roger federer: a better picture of his nike figurine + his biography

JNP sends us this Hypebeast link to the final version of Nike‘s Roger Federer toy (which we mentioned last week).

Hmm… Did Men’s Health help out designer Michael Lau with the toy? Because Roger’s shoulders look a little big to me…. Anyway, the figurines are available only through a Yahoo! HK auction (June 25-July 5) or by playing the Nike Pro Train Simulator (June 18-July 18).

What do you think of the toy? Tell us.

And just a reminder that the English translation of his latest unauthorized biography came out yesterday. Here are excerpts we’d previously published: a blurb about Roger’s friendship with Sampras, and another on his life with his girlfriend, Mirka Vavrinec. We also interviewed the author, Renee Stauffer, about his experience.

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short balls: why are old people so cranky?

(Check out the interview I did with BlogInterviewer.com yesterday about Tennis Served Fresh. Now onto the short balls:)

Emmo sticks to his guns: What’s that, Roy? You think showing personality on the court is tacky? You want us to just focus on the tennis? Sorry, bud. The sport wouldn’t survive in this YouTube world if we granted your wishes. (But I agree: if tennis stars keep making the news like this, I’d get ornery, too.) (The Sun)

Forget it: Frenchman Guy Forget makes a case against sleeveless shirts by taking a swipe at Rafael Nadal: “We don’t need construction worker arms in tennis”. Leave the kid alone! (Sydney Morning Herald)

Let’s celebrate the juniors: If you’d like to read up on the Wimbledon juniors’ draw, Zoo Tennis has something to say.

A veteran wants another chance: Lleyton Hewitt (above) hopes to get back into the top of the ATP rankings, and wants his chance at taking down Roger Federer. Meanwhile, people are pushing for him to team up with Aussie coach Tony Roche. (SMH)

A mainstay disappears: The Argus reports that the LTA could scrap Eastbourne.

And so does the traditional service motion: Read up on how Andy Roddick and tennis’ other big servers have transformed how we start points. (New York Sun)

It’s lonely at the top: IHT writes a sweet story on Roger’s and Rafa’s rivalry. They have to stick together, because all they’ve got is each other.

OT: Today’s off-topic reading comes from the Los Angeles Times. Apparently, Lagos is the “New York of Nigeria“.

waitaminute… how could I have missed it?

I was drooling so much over in anticipation of Roger‘s look that I overlooked one significant piece of info: Rafa was clearly without pirate pants at last week’s Fortis Tennis Classic.

Is he retiring the Nike clamdiggers for the fortnight? We’ll find out later today…

(via Whine & Cheese)

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the sum of its parts: nike pulls out all the stops for roger’s new outfit

Ok I’ll be the first to say that I don’t know why I can’t peel myself away from this Roger-mania. I really fell for whatever Nike‘s doing to keep up the buzz about his fashion sense.

To recap: until today, we’d only seen bits and pieces of his 2007 Wimbledon outfit. First I caught wind of the style of shirt he’d be wearing, and that they were to be paired with gold shoes. Then we saw the cap — embroidered with a monogrammed crest — at Satuday’s press conference. Then came the photo shoot with the the casual wear: blazer, pants, jumper, and bandana. And today he comes out with two match play shirts (one with an embroidered crest, the other with the gold stripes) and a crazy quilted bag. Jesus Christ there were so many layers to peel off. I couldn’t get enough of it.

Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

The folks at SlamXHype gives us some close-ups of Roger’s bag. One side of the quilted-patterned duffel has the “RF” logo and the other has the Swoosh.

The quilted/gold motif carries on to Roger’s shoes. On the right, you can see how they look when they’re worn.