Marta Kostyuk’s Wimbledon run rewards Wilson’s athlete-led design strategy

Marta Kostyuk is a tennis star and a champion for Ukraine, unafraid to challenge what they see as Russian silence about the war at home. On July 6, she opened a new chapter in the season, beating American qualifier Ashlyn Krueger 6-4, 6-4 to reach a first Wimbledon quarterfinal. Kostyuk is also becoming a fashion story: a second Wilson designed Wimbledon dress sold out within days of release, and Vogue has taken notice.

This is the story of a dress, a brand partnership that crosses continents and cultures, and a 24 year old athlete who has moved from highly touted prospect to established elite tennis star.

The story of a dress

Kostyuk married in Cyprus in November 2023 in a Wilson designed gown. When Wimbledon arrived the following July, the same silhouette returned, cut for competition. It sold out immediately and was later inducted into the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum, a rare crossover of bridal wear and sports memorabilia.

The 2026 follow up, officially ”The Marta Dress 2.0,” launched June 27 and moved from concept to court in about 10 months. It began with a design session between Kostyuk and Wilson’s chief creative officer of sportswear, Joelle Michaeloff, in Washington, DC, in August 2025. The new version drops the single piece format for a three piece system (bra, technical vest and two tier skirt) made from four way stretch fabric layered under floral technical lace, priced at $198.

Vogue Italia described the look in motion as closer to a ballet costume than a tennis kit, noting that the skirt lifts like a tutu when Kostyuk celebrates a point. Michaeloff has called Kostyuk the brand’s “sportswear muse” since the partnership began in 2023. Kostyuk has said simply that they do not think “a dress like this has ever existed in tennis.” Wilson’s own account of the collaboration leans heavily on words like muse and era.

The story of an athlete who is also her country’s champion

The dress arrives during a genuine breakout year. Kostyuk won their first WTA 1000 title at the Madrid Open in May, added a clay title in Rouen, and reached their first Grand Slam semifinal at the French Open in June. That run lifted them to a career high world No. 12.

Seeded 12th at Wimbledon, she carried that momentum onto grass. After two tight three-set battles in the early rounds, she beat Krueger in straight sets in 1 hour and 23 minutes on July 6 to reach her first Wimbledon quarterfinal, where she will face the winner of Alexandra Eala and Jasmine Paolini.

It has also been their most vocal year off the court. After beating fellow Ukrainian Elina Svitolina to reach that French Open semifinal, just hours after fresh Russian strikes on Kyiv, Kostyuk accused Russian players of hiding behind silence, telling reporters simply: “They have phones. They have Instagram. They have news.”

In a Reuters interview weeks later, she rejected the idea that competing without a flag amounts to neutrality, arguing that players “still represent their countries” regardless. She said the online backlash to those comments has, if anything, sharpened her resolve rather than quieted it. This stance is not new for Kostyuk. She has declined to shake hands with Russian and Belarusian opponents since the invasion began. But the visibility of a breakout season has given it a bigger stage.

The story of a brand partnership with meaning

Wilson Sporting Goods is a division of Amer Sports, a group based in Helsinki that also owns Arc’teryx and Salomon. Amer has been controlled since 2019 by an investor consortium led by Anta Sports, the Chinese sportswear group now the world’s third largest by revenue, behind Nike and adidas.

The partnership predates Kostyuk’s rise. Wilson signed her on Jan. 12, 2023 as its first “head to toe” ambassador, covering racket, footwear and apparel in one deal. It was a bet placed when she was ranked No. 57, not the No. 12 they would reach three years later. Kostyuk was coming off an expired Nike apparel deal at the time. Wilson’s global general manager of racquet sports, Jason Collins, said at signing that “there is nobody better to join forces with than Marta Kostyuk.”

Kostyuk described the deal as a turning point, saying they felt “at a turning point in my career” when it came together. In hindsight, Wilson’s timing looks smart: it secured early access to an athlete whose commercial and competitive value has since compounded.

What separates this deal from a standard endorsement is the direction of the design process. The clearest evidence is the Intrigue, Wilson’s first tennis shoe engineered specifically for women, released in 2025.

Rather than adapting a men’s last, Wilson’s footwear team, led by senior product director Shivam Bhan and senior design director Tate Kuerbis (both formerly of Nike), built the shoe from more than 1,000 scans of women’s biomechanics. The team worked from Kostyuk’s own foot data and match feedback on an accelerated one year timeline, about half the industry’s usual development cycle.

Wilson Sportswear President Gordon Devin said the brand is “committed to empowering the female athlete at every level.” That claim aligns with where the sport’s growth is concentrated. In the US, the USTA’s 2026 participation report found that tennis added 1.6 million players in 2025, with women accounting for 1.1 million of the sport’s growth since 2019, a 10 percent year over year increase. Outside professional tennis, market researchers put the global women’s tennis commercial market, spanning tournaments, sponsorship and merchandise, at roughly $1.5 billion, growing 5 to 7 percent annually.

A ten year brand relationship with a co design athlete at its center is, in that light, a strategic move to take an early position in a market segment the whole industry is now chasing.

The tension the marketing doesn’t mention

There is a harder story sitting next to the design story, and it deserves to be stated plainly rather than glossed over. Kostyuk has spent this season as one of the WTA’s most outspoken critics of countries they see as enabling Russia’s war. At the same time, the company backing their design partnership is controlled by a Chinese conglomerate, at a moment when, by the account of Western governments and independent analysts, China’s relationship with Russia is closer than at any point since the invasion began. Reuters and other outlets have described the two countries’ “no limits” partnership as having strengthened during the war.

It is important to be precise about what this juxtaposition does and does not show. There is no evidence that Anta Sports, Amer Sports or Wilson has any role in, or connection to, Chinese state policy toward Russia. These are separately regulated, primarily consumer facing businesses, and the ownership stake is a matter of public financial record, not foreign policy.

What the juxtaposition does illustrate is more ambiguous: the modern athlete economy and the geopolitics of global manufacturing and ownership increasingly run through the same handful of countries, often without either side acknowledging the other. Anyone who keeps repeating that sport must be separate from politics ignores the long history of sport as a stage for national identity and power. Whether spoken or not, the tension is there.

What this story is actually about

Yes, it is about the crossover between fashion and tennis, and about making more headlines in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar than in SportsPro. It is also about Wilson’s ability to spot an emerging talent early. It is about engaging with athletes - especially female athletes - who have mind, heart and voice, and who will not stay silent simply because sports organizers expect to keep reality off the pitch.

That is the challenge any brand must accept, regardless of who owns which brand. It is a challenge Marta Kostyuk knows how to meet: with strength, grace and the enthusiasm of a post-match backflip.

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