Welcome to the first installment of Good Kit/Ugly Kit. For those who have followed me for any length of time on Twitter, you’ll know that one of my past times is looking at tennis kits each week during tournaments. Here’s what I saw in Miami the past ten days that caught my eyes and in many cases, turned my stomach.
GOOD KIT
Fabio Fognini’s Emporio Armani/EA kit is delightful to my eyeballs. Part of it is that I’m a big fan of orange and I feel like this one gives me the blast of orange without getting too bothersome. The shorts with the slight hint of orange are a perfect balance to the shirt and yes, the shoes and socks accessorize well with the color combos.
UGLY KIT
The blue on blue itself isn’t a bad look, but Nike and their use of that F-ING zipper on the shirt has Karen Khachanov on the UGLY list. I hated this look last year when it came out at the U.S. Open and I hate it even more because IT IS STILL HANGING AROUND.
GOOD KIT
Fila rarely puts out bad kits and this one is no exception for Guido Pella. It’s a simple two color combination and the proper reversal of colors from top to bottom for me. The lighter blue highlights on the darker top are a perfect compliment when flipped to the mostly lighter blue shorts. Getting the light blue wrist bands and hat added in are a nice bonus blend of one of my favorite kits of the tournament.
UGLY KIT
Until they stop wearing this Nike kit, it’s on my list EVERY tournament. It’s not as bad as Frances Tiafoe’s Australian Open kit, but it still bothers me. I think I’d be more “okay” with letting this one go as passible or at least not annoying if the shorts were not the same pale yellow as the base for the shirt. I don’t mind the same base color up top and down low, but this one doesn’t work for me. I’d like to see black shorts or hell even the pink that is featured in the shirt if you want to be a bit crazy.
GOOD KIT
One more good kit to finish us off in Miami. This isn’t anything special, but I wanted to highlight one that has a “busy” pattern in it that can still look good overall with the right combination. If the top matched the shorts, this would be ATROCIOUS and among the worst kits I’ve ever seen. That’s where Tiafoe’s Aussie Open kit went wrong in matching the crazy pattern up top and down low. This one has the balance you need for a busy pattern and that is a plain short or in this case – shirt – to balance the busy nature of the shorts. I’d rock this look.
Keep following me @tennispig for more “live reviews” of kits as I see them during the week. This week’s focus is on Houston and the US Men’s Clay Court Championship.
ATP TOURNAMENT PREVIEWS & PICKS 