Nike’s Wimbledon Dress Was Anything But an Ace

The outfits that Nike designed for some of the women playing at Wimbledon were not a love match.

Players are required to wear all white at Wimbledon, and Nike pays some athletes to wear their gear. But this year’s dresses fell short—really short. The babydoll style, which the New York Times points out “is more commonly associated with lingerie and sleepwear than athletic performance,” caused problems for many athletes.

Rebecca Peterson of Sweden told the Times, “When I was serving, it was coming up, and I felt like the dress was just everywhere.”

Other women improvised to keep the dress in place. Peterson wore long-sleeved shirt over the dress to keep it in place. Katie Boulter wore a headband around her waist to double as a belt.

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Nike initially touted the dress as “a departure from the skirt-top combinations worn in previous Grand Slams,” according to the Times. Not all players criticized it. Maria Sakkari calls the dress one of her favorite tennis outfits: “I think it’s a very pretty dress, and I think that it’s very feminine.”