Does anyone at Nick Kyrgios' new brand watch tennis?

Unpacking its hilariously bad press release and the proliferation of shitty tennis brands. Plus, a few quick gift recs.

Last week I received a press release in my inbox announcing Nick Kyrgios’ new “ownership” of Stack Athletics, a supposedly “fast-rising” sports apparel brand no one has ever heard of despite being around since 2020. The word ownership is doing a lot of confusing work here—what does it mean, in non-press release terms? Is Kyrgios really running the business? Did he buy it? No, he just has a partial stake in it.

However, he will be tasked with “design direction, capsule storytelling, athlete collaborations and the evolution of Stack’s signature aesthetic across tennis, pickleball, padel, and lifestyle apparel.” All of which could just mean he’ll be a brand ambassador, we’ll have to wait and see.

But I found the press release amusing, as it reveals so much about the state of the crowded tennis apparel space today and the people who are largely filling it up with junk. Whoever wrote it (was it sister ChatGPT?) seems to know nothing about tennis, or thinks the people receiving it are so dumb…