James Blake is paying tribute to his late father.
This week at the U.S. Open, Blake debuted his new sports apparel line for Fila, called the Thomas Reynolds collection. Blake named the collection after his late father, who passed away in 2004 from cancer.
“I chose to have it be the Thomas Reynolds line because I didn’t want it to be totally about me,” Blake said in an email message. “My inspiration for life has been my father and I wanted to do something showing that I really believe his character is what is more important in life than my athletic ability.”
Blake’s own strength of character is well documented. Five years ago, he suffered through more pain within a year than most of us go through in an entire lifetime. There was the incident in Rome, where he fractured a vertabra in his neck after smashing into a net post during a practice session with his good friend Robby Ginepri. Months after that freak injury, Blake’s father was diagnosed with the stomach cancer that eventually killed him. Then days after saying goodbye to his father, Blake woke up to find the left side of his face paralyzed; he had contracted zoster, or shingles. His inspiring comeback (by 2006, he would reach his career-high world- ranking of No. 4) was about as miraculous as it gets in a game where a single setback can derail a career for good.
Before changing to Fila, Blake, a 10-year veteran of the tour, always wore Nike. So it came as a surprise when it was announced in January that Blake was moving over to Fila, becoming the first Top 10 American male to join the label in a decade (he’s now ranked No. 23). The new deal included a co-branded collection of apparel and shoes that would be created with the company’s team of designers. In the press release, Blake explained that he “always had an affinity” with the brand. “Ever since Borg graced the courts of Wimbledon in Fila, I have always been attracted to the Italian style, grace and sophistication of the Fila brand,” he said.
The collaboration on the collection began around the time of the announcement. Fila’s director of design for apparel, Freya Tamayo, worked with Blake at the company’s New York office and in Miami during the Sony Ericsson Open. “He has a very clear vision of what he likes,” she says. “He’s really into comfort and elegance. He likes the idea of taking something that he’s wearing on court, and being able to wear it afterward, like to dinner. That’s the whole concept of his clothing line.”
To inspire the collection’s style and the silhouettes of certain items, Blake loaned Tamayo some of his favorite items from his closet and also some of his father’s clothes. He made the choice on fabrics and colors. Tamayo says he leans toward more classic than active colors, like Harvard (his alma mater) red and North Carolina blue.
So far, Blake is the only pro wearing a shirt with a TR logo. “I want to see how it goes and concentrate more on the quality of the product before seeing if someone else should be in it,” he says. But there are a few players he could see wearing his line well: Roger Federer, Andy Murray and others he finds have the “classic games” that would suit the collection’s classic style.
This venture into the fashion industry is something Blake, who turns 30 in December, hopes will last beyond his pro-playing days. “It will be a way for me to stay involved in the tennis industry,” he says. “And have my father’s legacy live on.”
Sarah Thurmond is an associate editor for TENNIS. Follow her on Twitter.