With the U.S. Open over, Federer will shift his focus to new deigns he'll wear from UniqloGETTY IMAGES
Roger Federer is "crushing business matters" with the help of his agent Tony Godsick, who in June negotiated a 10-year, $300M "endorsement deal with Uniqlo," according to Stuart Emmrich of the N.Y. TIMES. Godsick, President & CEO of Team8, said that he "remained 'confused' about why Nike had decided to end the relationship" with Federer. Godsick: "We had a great relationship with Nike. ... One of the real mysteries for me is why they let him go." Federer said, "It’s all good. We tried to work it out for a year, maybe even more than a year -- and from my point of view, I thought I was being reasonable." Godsick left IMG in '12, and in December '13 announced that he was "starting his own agency," taking with him Federer as "client and business partner." Team8's other "initial clients" were tennis players Juan Martín del Potro and Grigor Dimitrov, who left in '17. The firm has since added Rangers G Henrik Lundqvist and tennis player Cori Gauff. Federer: "I didn’t worry about leaving IMG ... because I had done it once before. That taught me a lot about the business. It made me want to care about that side of my career." Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour said Federer and Godsick are "very aligned in the way they both approach business and the world at large." Meanwhile, Federer will "work closely" with Uniqlo's in-house designer. Federer said now that the U.S. Open is over, "We will talk. To see what direction we want to go in, in terms of color and designs and prints patterns. And also I want to find out just how many different outfits they want me to wear during the season" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/9).
WELCOME TO THE TEAM: Oracle Founder & Chair Larry Ellison has become an investor and partner with Universal Tennis, which also counts Team8 among its investors/partners. Universal Tennis is the company behind UTR Powered by Oracle, the tennis rating system that evaluates players based on match results. It also recently launched a tournament/event management system (Universal Tennis).
