The ‘perfect’ shoes and special diet 24-time grand slam title winner Novak Djokovic swears by
The tennis star is known for doing things a little differently, like hauling around a personal hyperbaric chamber to a grand slam tournament and carrying a ‘magnetic disc’. Then there’s his diet and his specially designed shoes.
In the tennis world Novak Djokovic is known for doing things very differently.
A number of times he has hauled a personal hyperbaric chamber to a grand slam tournament and lately he has been exposing the benefits of a “magnetic disc” he carries around. Then there is his gluten-free and dairy-free diet, which the 24-time grand slam title winner talks up often.
While imploring your local tennis club to get a hyperbaric chamber installed so you can elevate your game like a World No. 1 does might not be feasible, one weapon the weekend warrior can use is Djokovic’s shoes.
On the eve of the Australian Open, at the launch of the ASICS’ Gel Resolution X, the 37-year-old Djokovic was talking up the tennis shoes he wears from the brand, the COURT FF™ 3 NOVAK, which he says are the “best” he has worn.
“It’s the best tennis shoe I’ve ever played in, and the technical team of ASICS …[have put] so much effort, along with me and my team, to develop the perfect tennis shoe that is personalised for me,” Djokovic said at the ASICS Tennis Summit at the Kooyong Tennis Club.
“So even though I feel like I’ve reached the perfect shoe for my foot, I’m happy always to exchange ideas and thoughts on what we can do better. How I can actually move better on certain surfaces? Because tennis is a very demanding sport in terms of the change of surface.”
Tennis is big business for the sports shoes, with the likes of Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka, both World No.1, aligning themselves to Nike, and American star Coco Gauff sponsored by New Balance, but ASICS currently has a dominant grip on the Australian market, selling the most tennis shoes in this country.
The 10-time Australian Open champ Djokovic and the Japanese-founded shoe company’s designers work in close collaboration and will do whatever it takes to help the Serb to victory.
Last year, after Djokovic found the French Open’s Roland Garros surface challenging to play on – the clay was clumpier than usual – and with the Paris Olympics coming up on the same surface, he contacted the man at ASICS widely known as “the innovator”.
That man, Rene Zandbergen, whose official title is ASICS senior merchandising manager core performance sports, reveals to The Australian how changing the grip on the soles of Djokovic’s shoes after the French Open would eventually help set the Serbian up to win Olympic gold.
Zandbergen explains how usually the Roland Garros clay is “very thin, almost like sand” and how Djokovic’s specially designed shoes usually worked well on the surface – except last year.
“Because this time it was a bit more humid and it was a bit colder than normal and because of that, the clay starts to cluster … it was little bit thicker … so he felt like there was a bit more slippage,” Zandbergen said.
Djokovic wanted more grip on his shoes as he made that bid for Olympic gold at Roland Garros in Paris. And Zandbergen’s answer to the champion’s request?
“Our first answer was basically no, because if you want to change the mould of an outsole, it takes eight weeks at least, so that’s impossible,” Zandbergen told The Australian.
But then Zandbergen and his co-worker Yuhi Tanigaki, ASICS’ global product manager of tennis footwear, had another idea.
He found another grip on another pair of ASICS shoes that would work. They transplanted that onto Djokovic’s favoured shoe, made millimetre adjustments, and it worked.
“There was a bit more space in between the lines [on this model], right? So our customisation team in Japan, they’re almost like magicians, they were able to put it on a shoe,” Zandbergen said. “So three days before the Olympics, he came to the ASICS House [in Paris] he got them.”
The new design was perfect. Djokovic would go on to beat 21-year-old Carlos Alcaraz in that Olympic gold medal match on Roland Garros and he’d dub that victory one of the highest points of his career. “It was a wonderful fairytale,” Djokovic said of the Olympic win last week.
The shoe designers were chuffed too.
“It almost felt like we were a little bit of the gold medal, right? We were so proud and it was fantastic,” Zandbergen said.
Zandbergen, along with Tanigaki, helped to create the ASICS Gel Resolution X which are designed with baseline players in mind – with better lateral stability – meaning the shoes are reinforced for the side-to-side movement on court. Among a number of changes, this iteration of the shoe has updated foam, which is under the heel for “optimal cushioning”. When players strike the ball, their feet are usually positioned with heel first on the ground.
ASICS not only uses Djokovic but also other high-ranked tennis players including Australia’s Alex de Minaur, Lorenzo Musetti and Jasmine Paolini, to give detailed feedback on the shoes.
ASICS president and chief operating officer Mitsuyuki Tominaga told The Australian feedback from athletes trickled down to the final design so amateur tennis players could be their best.
“We set up a time during the year, do the research, the update, so we really work together and I think a lot of players really appreciate that,” Tominaga told The Australian.
“Obviously working with the top players, making sure we have the right functionality, making sure they’re happy, and then that trickles down those shoes into everyday players.”
When asked if he thinks buying Djokovic’s shoes will help “weekend warriors” play like the Serb champ, Tominaga laughs. “I hope so,” he says.
Djokovic’s influence on the shoe design even extends to the laces, with protection added to the Gel Resolution X because Novak’s sliding and flexibility put a lot of pressure on the “strings”.
ASICS has the edge in the tennis market at the moment and are the No. 1 brand in that sport’s space in not only Australia but also in the US and Asian markets.
But there are ambitions to dominate the market across the board – including the football codes and running markets.
“We’d like to be number one, and obviously it’s (a) very competitive market ... we have Nike, Adidas, Puma, and we also have, Hokka, those guys coming in, so very competitive,” he says.
But in the key markets for running and tennis, “we’d like to be in the number one space going forward as much as possible, and especially more on the tennis side”.
Another one looking to stamp his dominance is Djokovic. He is aiming to win an 11th Australian Open and a record 25th grand slam singles title. On Wednesday Djokovic will take on Portugual’s Jaime Faria in the second round of the Australian Open.
ASICS works off the philosophy “a sound mind in a sound body” (anima sana in corpore sano) and Djokovic says the company is always trying to improve for him.
“The two most important items that the tennis player has is a tennis racket and a shoe,” he says. “I think [at ASICS] there is a great kind of approach … to innovate and to always try to be better.
“I resonate with that kind of mentality, I feel like I am nurturing a similar kind of mindset … to always invest energy and effort into being better.”
Jessica Halloran flew to Melbourne as a guest of ASICS
