Vie Artletique launches a premium performance tennis shoe during the U.S. Open.
Vie Artletique
When a private group of tennis players, agents, coaches and investors hired the GR Shoe Company—the brand behind Jaylen Brown’s NBA shoe—to build a performance-driven tennis shoe in January 2025 the group wanted to intersect sport and fashion. Less than two years later, the product is ready, shipping to consumers the first week of the U.S. Open as Vie Artletique makes its official debut in New York and on the feet of athletes at the year’s final major.
“We made a highly technical shoe and then hit the design spec,” Jarka Duba, chief operating officer of Vie Artletique and part of GR Shoe Company, tells me. “Let’s make the best shoe and have people discover it and have people feel like it is fashionable.”
Already Canadian Leylah Fernandez has switched to Vie Artletique, American Ethan Quinn is testing the shoe now and Duba says a handful of other athletes are considering the brand. “As soon as I can get a shoe on their feet, they can choose,” he says about the young brand’s efforts to get pairs available. “I haven’t had anybody say no yet who has put a shoe on.”
The knit herringbone upper of the Vie Artletique performance tennis shoe puts art at the forefront of the design.
Vie Artletique
He credits the shoe’s last—the form that builds the shape of the shoe—and Vie Artletique’s attention to materials for the quick adoption.
When the project started, the GR Shoe Company team, which includes veterans of major shoe brands from across the world and people who have worked on some of the most famous basketball shoe lines in the sport—from Jordans to Kobes—the designers started by understanding why tennis players routinely take their shoes off immediately after playing due to pain. Duba says the issues come when feet slide side to side. The common solution wraps the upper in a non-breathable, non-stretchable material that only creates more problems. “It doesn’t have to be that way,” he says. “We just went out and chased some very high-end materials and some that were brand new. We made the best shoe we possibly could.”
It starts with the last. The team hired Jones & Vining, a global leader in last design, to create a last designed to work for tennis. And then they made plenty of them, fitting a variety of foot sizes while creating customized lasts for pro players, from Fernandez to Quinn.
The Vie Artletique performance tennis shoe launches in a blue and a purple for the U.S. Open.
Vie Artletique
From there, Vie Artletique opted for supercritical foam in the midsole so the footbed maintained a durable rebound. With it, they get the benefits of the foam being 30% lighter and with 30% more rebound than a traditional EVA foam that breaks down due to heating up during use.
Duba says the first time they tested a pair with a professional player, that player walked off the court without taking the shoes off. “I had seen her play a bunch and she had never walked off the court [wearing performance] shoes,” he says, adding that the question of “can we get someone to play in the shoe and be happy to go grab a coffee?” appeared answered.
Additional material details help define the rest of the design, with a brand-new material used as the toe guard, with an abrasion resistance rating at the lowest (most resistant) end of the chart. Typical running shoe outsoles have an abrasion resistance measured to 150 DIN, where the new toe guard material is 11 DIN. The team worked with a chemist to formulate an outsole. The upper features a knit herringbone to create breathability and give the shoe a “richer look.”
When the project started, the ownership team told GR Shoe Company not to bother to present a shoe that looked technical. So, while Duba sees the technical nature of the shoe, it’s designed to hide, instead offering an intersection of art and sport. “When an athlete is hitting their stride in sport it becomes art,” he says. “Elevating your fashion on the court doesn’t have to look technical.”
The new Vie Artletique performance tennis shoe.
Vie Artletique
The launch colorways for the U.S. Open include a “celestial blue” and “purple potion.” The mainline models feature “seed pearl,” a tan with small color accents. There is an all-white version ready too. Not only is Vie Artletique creating individualized lasts for professionals, but one player requested a specific Pantone color. “We can do that for him,” Duba says.
Fernandez was the first athlete to sign on. With a Lululemon apparel deal, she’d been on the hunt for a shoe that worked for her for years, switching between a range of brands. Duba says once they started working with her, they realized she has a uniquely narrow foot, meaning typical lasts weren’t working. Once they made her an individual last, she had an answer.
On the pro tour, Vie Artletique starts by teaming with players without a specific footwear deal (some apparel sponsorships come from brands not making performance tennis shoes). That helps give Vie Artletique visibility. For the tennis consumer, the brand knows they have to first convince them to make the choice to try something new and then make a second choice to pick Vie Artletique. That’s why they priced the premium technical shoe at $180, in the mid-point of some of the top-range shoes on the market.
As Vie Artletique looks to blend performance and style with a fresh perspective in tennis, the focus remains solely on one thing: “The brand,” Duba says, “is about shoes.”
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