“Anti-Establishment Road”: Andre Agassi Reveals How Nike’s Challenge Court Collection Befitted his Identity

The former World Number One Andre Agassi is regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. The eight-time grand slam champion was also quite famous for his choice of sports apparel back in the day. He was often seen sporting denim shorts along with neon t-shirts.

Andre Agassi, who was considered a prodigy, began his relationship with Nike back in 1988. “It’s paying tribute to, you know, an unbelievable company meeting a young kid who didn’t know any better, as it related to my own identity and we both were willing to search it out together. To explore it and communicate it,” said Agassi on his decades-long partnership with Nike in an interview with B/R Kicks.

Agassi and Nike Team Up Again

Agassi who had a love-hate relationship with the game spoke about how he discovered his identity during his early years at the tour. He further commented on how he began challenging the status quo.

“It was always something I had to do. And then at some point, it became the only thing I could do. And I think there was a lot of resentment in that, but there were a lot of rewards in it, too. So there was a lot of contradiction and conflict and I felt like what I wore was something that I could kind of choose and take ownership of, and I chose to kind of go down that anti-establishment road, because of that resentment.” said Agassi.

In 1990, Nike created the Challenge Court collection for that year’s US Open. They chose Andre Agassi to embody the bright disruptive colors in accordance with his “anti-establishment” attitude.

For the US Open 2020, the iconic brand is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Challenge Court collection. They have collaborated with Agassi to re-create his signature design and the collection is supposed to be released on August 24. It will be great to see players donning the apparel to pay tribute to the legend while celebrating his legacy.