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26th Jun 2013

It didn’t take Nike long to come up with a clever ad about Roger Federer’s orange-soled shoes

Fair play to the lads at Nike, it didn’t take them long to come up with this one...

Conor Heneghan

Fair play to the lads at Nike, it didn’t take them long to come up with this one…

In case you missed the big news at Wimbledon today, reigning champion Roger Federer, the man who, along with Pete Sampras, has won more men’s singles tournaments at Wimbledon than anyone else, was today told he would have to change the footwear he wore in his opening match at this year’s tournament because the orange sole on his Nike shoes violated the ‘predominantly white’ shoe and clothing guidelines at SW19.

Sure, it’s fine that another player can play a match with his Twitter handle printed on his shirt, but arguably the best tennis player the world has ever seen has to change his shoes because of orange soles. The mind boggles, but rules are rules we suppose.

Federer’s sponsors Nike couldn’t have been too happy that one of their products was the subject of a scandal in one of the biggest tennis events of the year but they managed to turn the controversy to their advantage with a quick-thinking and very clever advert that had the offending shoes as their centrepiece.

nikefedad

Pic via Twitter/NikeTennis

Well played Nike, well played.