TENNIS PLAYERS (Off-Court Shenanigans)

[Suliso]

Daniele Collins

[ponchi101]

Hard to believe she is not signed with a clothing sponsor.
Or is she? Has she found a NB replacement?

[JazzNU]

Hard to believe she is not signed with a clothing sponsor.
Or is she? Has she found a NB replacement?

Not even a little hard to believe, I've been over this. Unless she announces a new clothing sponsor in Rome, she's still only got her pitiful list of limited sponsors and no clothing sponsor.

[Deuce]

^ And I love it.
It's a very refreshing change from players scrambling to quickly put on their watch right after a match win, or being walking billboards, or otherwise making sure their sponsors are seen - rather than doing what comes naturally and allowing the emotions flow freely, their minds too often go to "I must satisfy my sponsors".

I, personally, don't judge a person - or their level of 'success' - by how many sponsors or endorsements one has.

(“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of the intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better - whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson)

[Suliso]

Heather Watson

[ponchi101]

...

Not even a little hard to believe, I've been over this. Unless she announces a new clothing sponsor in Rome, she's still only got her pitiful list of limited sponsors and no clothing sponsor.

But do we know why? Nobody is approaching her, or is she being selective? I would find her perfect for some of the smaller labels: a Lullulemon, Sketchers (if they wanted to come into the sport), even Reebok. NB was a very good fit.
If she is being choosey, fine. Her decision. If nobody is approaching the #1 american player, that is very odd.
Dumb question: can she be seen as "too old"? She is 28 (I would find that silly, but marketing is so weird).

[Suliso]

Maria Sakkari (St Peter's cathedral in the background)

[meganfernandez]

...

Not even a little hard to believe, I've been over this. Unless she announces a new clothing sponsor in Rome, she's still only got her pitiful list of limited sponsors and no clothing sponsor.

But do we know why? Nobody is approaching her, or is she being selective? I would find her perfect for some of the smaller labels: a Lullulemon, Sketchers (if they wanted to come into the sport), even Reebok. NB was a very good fit.
If she is being choosey, fine. Her decision. If nobody is approaching the #1 american player, that is very odd.
Dumb question: can she be seen as "too old"? She is 28 (I would find that silly, but marketing is so weird).

Maybe age. Maybe she's holding out for more money. I don't think it's because she's unlikeable, which is her reputation on TAT. I know plenty of people who like Collins a lot.

[ti-amie]

Not a shenanigan but it shows how fandoms can be so wrong about things...



And yes it is Flavia and her oldest I think.

[Deuce]

...

Not even a little hard to believe, I've been over this. Unless she announces a new clothing sponsor in Rome, she's still only got her pitiful list of limited sponsors and no clothing sponsor.

But do we know why? Nobody is approaching her, or is she being selective? I would find her perfect for some of the smaller labels: a Lullulemon, Sketchers (if they wanted to come into the sport), even Reebok. NB was a very good fit.
If she is being choosey, fine. Her decision. If nobody is approaching the #1 american player, that is very odd.
Dumb question: can she be seen as "too old"? She is 28 (I would find that silly, but marketing is so weird).

Maybe age. Maybe she's holding out for more money. I don't think it's because she's unlikeable, which is her reputation on TAT. I know plenty of people who like Collins a lot.

Her reputation as being unlikeable extends well beyond here...
Regardless of how likeable or not she is in 'real life', her demeanour on-court is not that of a likeable person. She is loud, aggressive, never smiling on court... her facial expression is usually dour on court... I believe she's had a few on-court conflicts with other players, as well...
She's a lot like Coco Vandeweghe, who also isn't exactly a marketer's dream.

All of this simply doesn't lend itself to attracting sponsors/endorsements, of course. With someone like Kyrgios, it's different - he behaves like an ass, and, regardless of how people feel about him, people will pay to see him because they know it'll be a spectacle. Even people who hate him will pay to watch him. He's entertaining. He's also an exceptionally talented player, and can hit shots that no-one else can hit. All of this lends itself to marketing.
With Collins, it's not like that at all. There is no spectacle. She is not highly entertaining. She does not possess magical tennis abilities like Kyrgios does... Plus, her on-court demeanour turns people off more than anything.
She's simply not very marketable. And she seems ok with that - which makes me like her .

[JazzNU]

...

Not even a little hard to believe, I've been over this. Unless she announces a new clothing sponsor in Rome, she's still only got her pitiful list of limited sponsors and no clothing sponsor.

But do we know why? Nobody is approaching her, or is she being selective? I would find her perfect for some of the smaller labels: a Lullulemon, Sketchers (if they wanted to come into the sport), even Reebok. NB was a very good fit.
If she is being choosey, fine. Her decision. If nobody is approaching the #1 american player, that is very odd.
Dumb question: can she be seen as "too old"? She is 28 (I would find that silly, but marketing is so weird).

I doubt many are approaching her. I've said this many times on here. It's not about her likability. She's not widely likable, and that's not a TAT thing, that's a thing many places. There is plenty of, I like her game, but don't care for her, etc. etc. She has fans that love her intensity, but that's just not the majority. BUT, it ebbs and flows. More people disliked her in 2019 than they do now for instance and to a certain extent, it's that people have gotten used to her. But even if she's not the most likable, that has nothing to do with getting sponsors at the end of the day when she's American, pretty, and blonde. Her age doesn't matter, these aren't 20 year contracts. But at this point, while she may be holding out for more money from a place or two, I doubt she's highly sought after because she's ish at marketing herself and there's just no way market research says she moves the needle enough right now to offer anything significant. She also had the sh!tshow in NC that is a red flag for brands, she's absolutely awful at social media in general, and then she does the social media thing she thinks the US soccer players did, but is 100% wrong about the way they went about it. She's a bad brand ambassador, unreliable in just about every way and you won't know what you're getting from her so probably an iffy investment, especially if she's not willing to take a lower offer and wants something that she thinks a top 10 player would be offered.

She could fix it all in like 3-6 months time. Will she? She's had 2 years to fix her NC gaffe and hasn't, she hid. So no reason to think she'll suddenly figure out she needs to market herself better than she does. There was a brief moment last year where I thought she was making an attempt, but that disappeared pretty quickly.

[JazzNU]

From the many Miami Grand Prix events over the weekend. That is Patrick Mahomes on the left for the non-Americans who don't follow the NFL.

[Suliso]

Steffi with her son

[JazzNU]

She could fix it all in like 3-6 months time. Will she? She's had 2 years to fix her NC gaffe and hasn't, she hid. So no reason to think she'll suddenly figure out she needs to market herself better than she does. There was a brief moment last year where I thought she was making an attempt, but that disappeared pretty quickly.

FWIW @ponchi, I went to her IG page after I posted this. Here's an update that should give you hope - I have previously wondered why her management is so bad at getting her to fix these issues to the point where I wondered if she had any real representation. I'm positive that she was not represented by IMG at this year's Aussie Open or even Miami Open. But she is represented by them now I see, this is a very recent change. I would assume that they will fix all of this in short order and maybe she finally realized how much she was leaving on the table being so blase with off-court endorsements, let alone decent clothing, shoe and racquet contract and figured out she needed real pros at this working for her. But she also had time to do this before and didn't, so some of this will still be on her and it can't all be about new management. But it's a great sign she finally got experienced representation. I would guess that her social media being active and her posting some very nice off-court photos in the last month is all a product of new management. Like I said, easy to fix, she just hasn't really tried to. She's a Marketing 101 case, this isn't difficult. The posts are still too Dani-esque, but hey, it's a start in the right direction. With IMG's connections and track record, you won't be asking why she's sponsorless very soon.

[ti-amie]