How Wilson Approaches Creating Roland Garros Gear

Moise Kouame of France celebrates a victory at Roland Garros with his Wilson collection of bags surrounding him. (Photo by Tnani Badreddine/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images)

DeFodi Images via Getty Images

When 17-year-old French tennis sensation Moise Kouame strutted off the court after winning his opening match at Roland Garros, the Wilson bag he carried was no coincidence. As the official equipment, ball and stringing partner of Roland Garros since 2019, Wilson works to craft an entire lineup of special equipment connected to the tournament, available both at retail and displayed by the growing roster of athletes playing on the clay in Paris.

“This year, our strategy for the Wilson player roster was to create a clear and visible connection between the Wilson x Roland Garros hardgoods collection and what fans see on court,” David Packowitz, Wilson global product line manager for performance rackets, tells me. “We built a strong roster of French Wilson players, both men and women, carrying the Roland Garros bag collection throughout the tournament.”

For the night session, that meant a special Session Soiree bag, designed to pop under the lights. For the day, that was the Day Session Roland Garros bag, the one Kouame carried in front of the hometown fans. “That image captured exactly what this collection represents: the next generation of French tennis competing on one of the most iconic clay courts in the world with Wilson by their side,” Packowitz says. “Seeing our bags courtside in front of a global audience is the ultimate validation of the collection. It’s where product, performance and the biggest stage in clay court tennis come together.”

But getting there isn’t happenstance. “It’s a very intentional process,” Packowitz says.

Deciding which current pieces of Wilson product get the Roland Garros treatment requires the team looking at products they’ve recently brought to market and then aligning them with what players and fans in the region naturally gravitate toward, especially with clay’s unique demands. Along the way, Wilson must always ask if the product honors the prestige of the tournament. “We want every special-edition piece to feel like it genuinely belongs at this tournament, not just a product with a logo, but something that captures the spirt of the Court Philippe Chatrier, the red clay and the legacy behind it,” Packowitz says. “Our goal is to bring newness, excitement and a sense of exclusivity that makes each collection feel like a true collector’s item.”

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This year that means some of Wilson’s most popular rackets have special-edition Roland Garros colorways (think Clash 100 v3, Ultra 100 v5 and Pro Staff 97 v14) and there’s a special suite of bags and balls ready for the tournament. Every piece is deeply interconnected, all telling the same visual story.

Color offers the most critical piece—and most complex—of the decision process, this year with orange and blue leading the way while accented by green and white. Roland Garros has a robust set of guidelines around colors, logos and style, as expected, so within those parameters the Wilson product and design team immerses itself in the inspiration of the clay surface, Parisian architecture, the romanticism of the Bois de Boulogne surrounding the grounds and the heritage of clay court culture.

“From there, we enter a truly collaborative creative process with the Roland Garros team where we build the design direction together,” Packowitz says. “It’s not a quick exercise. It requires multiple rounds of alignment, refinement and mutual respect for what this tournament represents. The result, when it comes together, feels less like a product line and more like a tribute.”

Each year, Wilson aims to tell a new story, not just rework what was the done the previous year. Still, Packowitz says they are proud of the evolution of two distinct themes: one for the day session and one for the night session, a relatively modern chapter in the tournament’s story. “Looking ahead, we’re excited to push even further,” he says. “A tournament this rich in culture, detail and history deserves more than a single narrative per year. We’re actively working on expanding our thematic universe, creating objects of desire that don’t just perform at the highest level, bur reflect the full depth and essence of what Roland Garros means to tennis and to French culture. There are very special things in the pipeline that I think fans and collectors will genuinely love.”

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