Let me take you back to the mid-1970s.Yes, as you’ll probably know, everything was in black and white, including many TV sets, Europe seemed a thousand miles away, your dad always seemed to be on strike, but we were kids on the streets of Liverpool and as long as we could play out with our mates, we didn’t have a care in the world. No mobile phones, games consoles, 200 TV channels or Betamax video recorders to act as a distraction. Well not just yet anyway.
We played sport most days, football during the winter, bike races on the road during the summer. I even remember a week in 1976 when about 12 of us did the Olympic Games. Sprints, long distance races around the block, the long jump, you name it and we did it. I’ve never been so fit and then there were the games of tennis on the road. Chalk lines for the court and not even a net. Just keep an eye out for approaching cars. My sister's cheap Dunlop tennis racquet would suffice. Tennis was part of her school's curriculum, and it wasn’t even a posh school. That’s how much the sport had been taken into the mainstream.
1977 became a momentous year in the world of tennis as we moved from the roads to a concrete court with nets in a small park not far from our home. Well, I don’t think that was as momentous as Virginia Wade winning the Women's Wimbledon Championship in its Centenary year. The nation became enthralled as the BBC covered each and every game. The Men's title, that year, was captured for the second year running by a 21-year-old Swede by the name of Bjorn Borg. A year in which his wonderful Fila outfit had suddenly become endorsed with his own BJ initials. It was also the year in which Liverpool captured their first European Cup in Rome as 26,000 travelling Scousers, including this 14-year-old, descended upon the Eternal City. Tennis and Liverpool in Europe. There's a link in there somewhere. But more about label mania later.
The 70s saw tennis hit levels of popularity never before seen. It was only in 1968 that professionals had been able to compete in the Grand Slam Tournaments. Along with this came colour TV coverage, so as the best players in the world competed, exposure to the sport grew amongst the general public. Mix in a cast of colourful characters including McEnroe, Connors, Nastase and Borg, and it made for compulsive viewing. This phenomenal era saw these players at the peaks of their powers and epic battles ensued. None more so than the 1980 Wimbledon Final between Borg and McEnroe, not only recognised as the greatest tennis match of all time and one of the greatest sporting events ever, but also as a turning point in the counterculture phenomena now known as 80s Casuals.
Yes, a game of tennis at Wimbledon was to inspire a generation of young upstarts and its part in the evolution of the High Street needs to be told. By 1980 Liverpool fans had taken it upon themselves to start wearing training shoes on the streets, something unheard of prior to these years. Trainers were for sport, not going to the match or the pub.
The limited city centre sports shops sold the cheaper end of the trainer spectrum. Adidas Samba and Stan Smith were £20 shoes, Britain was in recession, but on the Continent, there was an array of £30/£35 adidas Trimm Trabs and Grand Slams all vying for the attention of travelling football supporters looking for superior goods and that feeling of one-upmanship. These expensive imports were intended for the very sport for which they were designed. Little did adidas, Nike or Diadora realise that the fad of wearing training shoes for every day use would lead to a new market for the sports brands, that of supplying training shoes for the consumption of Joe public.
In the following years on from that famous Borg v McEnroe or Fila v Sergio Tacchini Final (as we remember it), sportswear in Britain became ubiquitous. Anything seen on the plush lawns of Wimbledon gained the attention of many. From Lacoste and Ellesse polos to Fila and Sergio Tacchini tracksuits or Diadora Borg Elite and Nike Wimbledon trainers, the Football Casual, with a little inspiration from the stars of the SW19 Postcode, started the last great revolution in mens clothing.
The designer sportswear only usually seen on the backs of highly paid superstars was now being hunted on the continent. Our holiday in 1982 would take in the joys of Venice, Italy, with only one thing on our minds and that was to pick up a Sergio Tacchini or Fila tracksuit. Between 1980 and 84 football fans invaded Europe in search of any sportswear that was ‘Made in Italy’.
The British High Street would soon devour the latest fashion trend as new sports shops opened up on every corner and mens stores stocked the latest sportswear, plus almost every fashion brand would develop a sports range to feed the insatiable appetite of the Great British public.
A lasting legacy from a golden era in the history of The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
