When I posted Rafael Nadal's new Nike gear in fans Facebook group, everyone seems aren't ready for his that preppy look.
Hours before his first U.S. Open match against Bjorn Phau, Nadal decided that his game was more important than his wardrobe, telling his advisers and corporate sponsor Nike Inc. that he wasn't ready for an image makeover after all.
Cheers for the fans!!!!!"Frankly, Nadal is on a roll," said Kilee Hughes, a spokesman for Beaverton, Ore.-based Nike, which designs Mr. Nadal's clothes. "We listen to the voice of the athlete."
And you listen to the fans too!
Nike had unveiled Mr. Nadal's new look after months of careful planning that began with a trip by Nike's design team to the star's home in Majorca, Spain.
The new lightweight shirt supposed to ensure that it wouldn't hinder Nadal's performance, and it created shorts designed to "move with him -- from baseline to net -- without chafing or bunching up."
But perhaps no one is more resistant to change than an athlete on a winning streak.
However, Nadal is still committed to switching to the new gear, perhaps at one of the smaller tournaments after the U.S. Open.
Now that he was the top player on the planet, Nadal was ready to bid farewell to the adolescent muscle T-shirts and Capri-style pants that had garnered nearly as much renown as his lightning strokes and adopt a more traditional tennis look.
"I am excited about evolving my on-court apparel with Nike to a polo and shorter-length short," Nadal said in a statement Monday afternoon.
"For the U.S. Open, however, we collectively decided I would continue wearing the apparel I've been competing in all year. It's a decision we made based on the limited time I've had to practice in the new apparel between the Olympics and the U.S. Open."
(Images via Yahoo! Sports, U. S. Open website, news via The Wall Street Journal)
