ASICS innovator details in on Novak Djokovic’s genius and involvement in designing his shoes 

Novak Djokovic has been in association with ASICS for over five years now.


ASICS innovator details in on Novak Djokovic’s genius and involvement in designing his shoes 

Novak Djokovic's shoes at Wimbledon 2023 (Images via The Independent, The Hindu)

Novak Djokovic has 24 Grand Slam titles to his credit, the most in the men’s tennis history and the 36-year-old is still going strong. While everyone sees the hard work Djokovic puts on the court, very few know about the efforts the Serb puts in behind the scenes to perfect not only his game but everything related to it. Only a few people know that Djokovic has played a big part in designing his shoes which he wears on the court. 

Djokovic’s shoe designer company, ASICS’ innovator Rene Zandbergen has talked about the extent to which the Serbian is involved in designing the shoes he wears on the court. Zandbergen has revealed that Djokovic started getting involved in shoe designing right after he penned a deal with the company.

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The man who got praise from the Serb himself talked about how Djokovic would discuss the things he wanted. Zandbergen then talked about the COVID period and how it helped them build a partnership.

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Novak has been very involved since the moment he signed with ASICS...When he signed with us, he started with the Resolution shoe and we thought it would be better for him to be in the Court FF. From that moment four years ago we started working closer together. Then during Covid we had more time to speak with Novak online and especially for me, that helped to build our relationship.
Rene Zandbergen revealed while talking to Tennis 365.

Novak Djokovic works closely with designers to get the perfect shoe

Rene Zandbergen then delved deep into his relationship with Novak Djokovic and revealed how the Serbian helps the manufacturers design the perfect shoe for him. The ASICS innovator revealed that the 36-year-old would try and share his inputs about the pros and cons of the prototype and then the company would implement those changes.

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Novak Djokovic (R) with Rene Zandbergen (L) (Image via Tennis 365)

Rene Zandbergen remembered his time with the Serbian ace in Germany. He recalled how Djokovic would review the prototypes by wearing them in his practice sessions which went for hours. He would then share his feedback on issues like flexibility and stability and the designers would try to implement those changes.

His practice sessions were long. Maybe we started at 10 am that day and he finished around 3 pm, with some lunch in between. I would sit with him on the bench during the session and get some feedback on what he liked from the shoes we had given him and what we could change to make it better. It is all about trial and error. Making a small improvement and looking for a big impact and Novak is very proactive in telling us what he wants.

Notably, Novak Djokovic entered into a deal with ASICS five years back and the partnership has been running since then. The Serbian has added 12 Grand Slam titles since then. It is also worth mentioning that the shoes designed in consultation with Djokovic are being used by other players too who have given positive feedback.

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