We’re at a studio just off I-95 in Boynton Beach, Florida. Coco Gauff—the current world number four women’s tennis player, 2023 U.S. Open champion, and 2023 and 2024’s highest-paid female athlete on the planet—has stepped outside for a few photographs in situ, away from the busywork humming inside. A longtime local—she grew up in nearby Delray Beach—Gauff seems at ease in the familiar humidity, even in a tracksuit. But the tracksuit is key: printed on the left chest and upper thigh are New Balance’s fused “NB” icon and Miu Miu’s curvy-mod font logo. It’s a tightly held reveal from a capsule of performancewear, outerwear, and accessories between the two brands, which the tennis star will debut on- and off-court during the Italian Open in Rome, starting May 7. She’ll continue wearing these co-branded items in Berlin and Cincinnati later this year and, come September 10—peak U.S. Open time—the Miu Miu x New Balance with Coco Gauff collection will finally be released to the public. Here in the Sunshine State in late March, Gauff is on-site shooting content for the coming months—and we were invited for a first look.
Gauff, who consulted on the collaboration, is visibly pleased with the outcome. The tracksuit’s styling nods to Miu Miu’s Spring 2025 collection—with its flyaway collars and rolled sleeves—and the inclusion of Gauff’s handwritten signature on her custom Coco CG2 New Balance shoes adds a personal touch.
“It’s three tournament looks in total,” Gauff says. “I showed them what silhouettes I like, and we worked around that as a starting point. We were, like, What can we do in tennis that has either never been done or been done very few times? The only time I can think of high fashion on the court was when Off-White partnered with Serena [Williams.] I know Fed[erer] had the Jordan shoe, but not a full outfit. Jannik Sinner has been carrying Gucci when he walks on court, but it’s not a collab.”
In an era when sport and fashion are more intertwined than ever, the move not only represents a crossover benchmark–Rome, indeed, will be the first time an Italian-founded luxury fashion label will officially be worn in play at a WTA event—but also, a new step in Gauff’s extracurricular interests. She has become popular on TikTok, in part for her “GRWM” videos, which showcase her style. (Gauff describes her aesthetic as “playing with femininity and masculinity.”) However: she has never been to a fashion show. “Not one! It is something I want to do. I feel like, when I was younger, it just wasn’t the right spotlight for me. But now I’m trying to branch out more.”
This broadening sentiment may be due to her own recent milestone: Gauff turned 21 on March 13, just a week before our meeting. Fans and followers might be surprised at the reminder; Gauff does seem far maturer than the number, and she admits to the tug-o’-war of feeling more adult—which is understandable given her fame and earnings—but also being a “quite regular” Gen-Z’er .
“I feel like, in growing up in this life, I can feel a lot older than I am,” she says. “But outside of tennis, in a lot of ways, I’m the same [as any other young person]. So if someone asks to do something as simple as a TikTok, I love to do that. It brings me back to my age. I will always say yes to that.” (In March, her preferred TikTok audio and trend was the dance around Doechii’s “Anxiety,” but the app moves faster than an ace, so she likely has a new favourite at this point.)
