Why Gen Z loves ‘Tenniscore’, the preppy Wimbledon dress code
Zendaya and the ‘Tenniscore’ trend took hold last year following the release of the film Challengers, but fashion types assumed the look would be game, set and match by autumn. Little did they know: Brat summer is back, and so is Tenniscore, only this time the Gen Z style trend has gone beyond the court. It has become a fully-fledged aesthetic that is reshaping what we wear on the tennis court as well as what we wear off it.
There are more accessible and renovated tennis courts in the UK than ever, and padel and pickleball, formerly popular only on mainland Europe, are booming in popularity. But the Tenniscore trend goes further than yellow balls: the popularisation of preppy clothes in everyday life says something about Gen Z’s penchant for the traditional. They aren’t just wearing formal clothes, either: more twenty-somethings are going to church, stopping drinking, and romanticising domesticity (see: TikTok’s Tradwife trend).
“The rise of ‘Tenniscore’ in 2025 is part fashion revival, part identity shift,” says Louise Millar, strategy director at Gen Z marketing agency, Seed. “It taps into a broader resurgence of conservative style, where we’re seeing clean grooming, polos, pleated skirts, preppy collars, all paired with a quieter, more considered attitude.”
Why are Gen Z suddenly wearing preppy tennis clothes? It’s all about nostalgia
Be it a pleated skirt or a popped collar, these looks have cache on and off court – in fact, for Gen Z, arriving to lunch sweaty in Tenniscore fashion might be the ultimate 2025 sartorial serve. “Our collaboration with A.P.C. showcases tennis not just as a sport but a lifestyle, bridging the gap between sportswear and everyday style,” says Camille Eberhard, director of apparel at Asics, whose new range includes tie-dye tracksuits and sleeveless activewear tees.
Sporty & Rich and Recreational Habits are the types of activewear brands capitalising on the trend, but the look has transcended the sports world. Gucci and Louis Vuitton have launched Tenniscore-inspired ranges, too. “You’ll see it in the likes of Vogue,” says Jonathan Dowdell of Original Penguin Tennis & Padel. “The added benefit for the consumer is that they’re getting the benefits of sportswear, matched with stylish designs.”
Zendaya, Dua Lipa, Nicole Scherzinger and Bella Hadid have been photographed in Tenniscore looks, and last year The All England Lawn Tennis Club – AKA Wimbledon – saw a huge spike in sales of merchandise, with sales up 54 per cent year-on-year. Their activewear range was historically made by sportswear-maker Babolat, but Wimbledon’s online store this year is teaming with pieces that can be worn while hitting balls or sinking buzzballs (that’s the latest trend of takeaway cocktail).
Read more: Inside Wimbledon’s first ever official off-court fashion range
“We are tennis!” says Wimbledon’s creative operations lead Emily Adams when I ask what she thinks of all the brands now competing in their space. “If anything it’s just bolstering the trend, I don’t think it’s competition, particularly.”
Wimbledon’s new range for 2025 includes a tennis skirt purposefully designed not to be worn during tennis and an active wear t-shirt with colour-contrasted sleeves. Adams hopes the fancier jumpers will be thrown over the pleated activewear skirts. “I feel like this is the most relevant season I’ve designed,” she says. “Now I don’t know what I’m going to do next year!”
Look at images of Fred Perry on Centre Court taken in the 1930s and it’s hard to argue there is a more classic or timeless sports fashion look. But why are Gen Z, people born between 1997 and 2012, suddenly looking to the past? One theory is that in an increasingly lonely and splintered society, where we’re all stuck to our phones, young people feel increasingly nostalgic for the past, and even long for historic periods they didn’t even live through.
But it’s not just about Gen Z. While countless think-pieces have been written about football fashion both on and off the field, by contrast, people are only just coming to terms with tennis fashion, reckons Millar, who says Tenniscore’s growth is also down to where brands see room for commercial opportunity. “Tennis is the last ‘ownable’ sport with space to grow,” she says. “Right now, tennis is cool because it hasn’t been fully claimed – but that’s changing fast.”