Fila clothes for Kim Clijsters’ farewell year

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Wilson Blade 9

This year’s retrospections of WTA players’ outfits we opened with fashion queen Maria Sharapova and her Nike designs, but right after her I think it’s most fair to feature the great tennis champion Kim Clijsters who hung up her racket after the 2012 US Open, causing her clothing sponsor Fila to lose its most recognizable endorser.

Fila signed Clijsters eleven year ago and in 2005 the company decided to sponsor the Belgian for the duration of her career. The Italian sportswear brand was aware that they would lose their brightest star, so early this year they concluded new contracts, with Vera Zvonareva and Jelena Jankovic. Of course, Svetlana Kuznetsova is still with them, she’s also their long-time endorser.

Let’s move on to the overview of Fila 2012 style. As you can see, their signature clean lines, sporty designs and colors of red, blue/black and white were predominant. Just a note, at the Australian Open, besides the black skirt and white V-neck shirt, Clijsters wore an all-black outfit with lime details.

 

This year Clijsters didn’t play Roland Garros because of a right hip injury, but remember how last year Fila celebrated its 100th anniversary at the claycourt Grand Slam with a special outfit sketched up according to the outfit Clijsters received for Christmas as a child. At Wimbledon, Fila introduced touches of gold on a cap sleeve top and traditionally white skort from their Trophy collection.

At the London Olympics Clijsters wore Adidas, like the rest of the Belgian team.

The Fila outfit of the year is of course the US Open celebration of Kim’s last tournament and the end of her career. For the occasion, Fila designed a collection with a symbolic pattern – 11 big stars honor Kim’s 11 years with Fila, while four stars have a tennis ball, paying tribute to the champion’s four Grand Slam titles. There are two versions of the ensemble, white for the day, navy for the night. Here you can have a closer look at all the items.

The official ceremony closing Clijsters’ illustrious tennis career will be held on December 12th, in Antwerp, Belgium. Clijsters will play an exhibition match with Venus Williams, there will be one-hour-long Kim’s Thank You farewell show and the evening will be concluded by a doubles match.
What do you think of Clijsters’ 2012 style? I think her and Fila are a match made in heaven! (photos: © Neal Trousdale, digiarnie, Richard van Ioon, Wacka Quacker, Moo’s Tennis Blog, Christian Mesiano)

9 COMMENTS

  1. My faves: the white/gold from wimbledon and the red/white/blue U.S. Open kit. For the latter, I LOVED that the stars-and-tennis-ball print was on the hot pants under the skirt!

  2. My favourite is also the US Open one…but it wasn’t a dress, wasn’t it? Never seen Kim in a dress… 😛 Who will be Fila’s Flagship start next year?!

  3. Brenda, I skipped to mention that. Thank you for notifying me. I added one line of text above the photo 😉

    Erwin, wow I’m glad to see you’re still reading my blog! It’s been a while since we last talked.

    Liz, you’re right, it wasn’t a dress, it was a two-piece outfit. Fila will hardly replace Clijsters any time soon, but Jankovic is a nice addition to the brand. Maybe they will sign some up-and-coming star.

  4. Oh, yes, that’s true! JJ switched to fila… too bad imo, I thought she fitted this Chinese brand very well. Still think it’s unfortunate we can’t buy it anywhere across Europe….

  5. Kim had a great deal with Fila,and they always made nice and sporty clothes for her. Marija, who is going to be next? 🙂

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