I Started Tennis For the Outfits — This New Sportswear Brand Is Changing the Game

When a tennis skirt becomes your favorite and most-worn item in your closet and you reach for it on days you're not even picking up a racket, you know you've found a winner. The Spence Court Stretch Slip Skirt in the brand's signature red colorway is that piece for me: a former fashion editor and lifelong non-athlete who tried tennis last year as an excuse to wear the outfits. Sure, I hoped to acquire new skills and maybe even new friends, but the opportunity to dress in stylish sportswear was 100 percent what drew me to tennis. In fact, I created a Pinterest board of covetable pieces and heritage imagery back in 2023, a year before "Challengers" even hit theaters.

Feeling nervous for my first lesson last summer, I put on a head-to-toe Nike Court fit. I have always gained confidence from my closet and knew I could look good, even if my forehand didn't. After six months of hitting the courts several times a week, I surprised myself by becoming the captain of a USTA team. Finally I had a legitimate reason to stock up on tanks, tees, and skirts, but despite the rise of tenniscore, most collections were disappointing and utterly interchangeable. Basic, uninspired, and certainly lacking any edge, the white pleated tennis skirts on the market looked more like costumes than real workout attire. I wanted eye-catching outfits that would motivate me during practice, and look great wherever my day took me afterward. It seemed like no brands, from legacy sportswear giants to smaller athleisure retailers, were innovating for the modern player. Must I be Naomi Osaka to wear something unique?

A few months ago, I stopped scrolling my Instagram explore page on an action shot of a woman in a bright red top and A-line white skirt with a caption that read: "In love and sport, the lines blur." The photo was from a new tennis brand called Spence that claimed it was here to shake things up. Keeping my hopes up, I reached out to Spence founder Amanda Greeley about the "revolution" she hoped to bring to racket sportswear. "When I was thinking about wanting to do this a few years ago and looked around, I felt like a lot of the bigger, older, more established brands and purveyors of tennis clothes had gotten really boring," she says.

Thankfully, Spence delivers on its bold and distinctive social aesthetic. The first capsule-style, mix-and-match collection is well thought-out, enlisting cleverly developed and exceptionally lightweight materials for high performance. The unique color palette offers pops of red punctuating a textured white waffle weave and what appear to be black separates that, upon second glance, are actually the darkest shade of green. One knit tennis skirt is even reversible from sky blue to moss green. But best of all, each garment features sleek, modern lines, offering a truly fresh take on tennis style with an underlying dose of energy and sex appeal that every other collection seems to lack.

"Figuring out that intersection of sport, fashion, and functionality is such a fun puzzle, especially now as we all live in this perennial athleisure space as we get dressed," she says. "Athleisure sounds a little lazy to me, like you dumped something on and have kind of given up, whereas sportswear is sexy and intentional."

Greeley wants Spence to give a nod to the sport's iconic heritage, but bring the garments into a fresh, modern era. "So often the visual is 'we're at the country club in our white skirt drinking a spritz,' and it's just so posed and lacking life. We are making the brand feel very alive and fun." In its mission statement, Spence declares that "this is gear for people who move differently, who understand that sport, like life, is about timing, rhythm, and the occasional well-placed act of defiance." Country club whites be damned.

It's perhaps no surprise that Greeley relates to my passion for tennis skirts, and says wearing them served as her own gateway to the sport at just 4 years old. "Tennis is offering an alternative workout look," she says. "The opportunity to wear cute dresses and skirts is fun and can translate into something you might just want to wear on Saturday bopping around." Validation, at last.

Coming up, Spence will launch its first tennis dress with striped terry straps, racket bags, socks, performance hats, and outerwear. As for me, I've garnered a reputation at my racket club for both my Pinterest-worthy tennis wardrobe and my put-away volleys. If you're also craving some standout gear, shop my favorite Spence pieces below.