Oliver Peoples Teams With Roger Federer to Debut Performance Category
The eyewear brand is teaming with the tennis legend for a multiyear partnership starting with a six- piece collection.
is entering the performance eyewear category through a collaboration with tennis legend Roger Federer and his namesake label.
“I appreciate the integrity of [the Oliver Peoples] product and it felt very natural to expand my RF brand with them,” Federer said. “There was also a strong alignment on what we wanted performance eyewear to be — something functional, yet also a luxury piece.”
The collaboration will include four collections, starting with six eyewear styles that are available now. The collection offers four sunglasses and optical lenses and two shield-style sunglasses ranging in price from $390 to $502 at Oliver Peoples' stores, website and via its wholesale partners.
“[Federer] represents style, elegance and precision, so I think those are attributes that I see also in the brand,” said Oliver Peoples president Rocco Basilico. “It was a huge opportunity. In general for eyewear, there's nothing that sits in the intersection of performance and luxury, so it was a great opportunity to start to look at that category with Roger.”
For nearly 40-year-old brand Oliver Peoples, the collaboration provides an opportunity to bring its luxury ethos and design codes into the performance eyewear category.
“It was a huge opportunity for the brand to step into this high-performance luxury segment and we tried to do something new,” Basilico explained. “We could have done something more safe, but we're pushing ourself into sports performance, and creating the first shield for Oliver Peoples is a huge story. I'm sure our customer will love it, so we're looking forward to seeing it on many faces because I think it's a product for everyone.”
The shield sunglasses are a standout of the collection. Basilico and Oliver Peoples' senior design director, Lise Tyler, said the idea came from speaking with Federer and understanding his priorities for performance eyewear.
“It was a lot of speaking with him — what kinds of things would be beneficial to the wearer, not only him, but to everyone who is ultimately going to wear the sunglasses,” Tyler said. “There's also the element of Roger. You think of him and he's obviously a tennis player and then he's the cohost of the Met Gala where he's on the red carpet and everything in between, so we wanted to make sure we curated a good collection that offered something for every aspect of his life and everyone's as well.”
Performance was embedded into every facet of the sunglasses' design. The collection introduces new custom color enhancement lenses that are said to boost the dominant colors found in specific natural environments, such as water, foliage or in the city. Other styles have polarized lenses to cut the sun's glare and mirrored lenses.
There's also a rubber grip on the sunglasses' bridge and temples to help prevent sliding. The collection is also said to be lightweight with a maximum weight of 35 grams.
Tyler and the Oliver Peoples team worked closely with Federer to inject many personal touches into the eyewear.
“With my own style, I look for pieces that are sophisticated, elegant and modern,” Federer said. “I want to feel elevated and intentional in what I'm wearing — no matter the scenario. This collection fits these needs perfectly, and hopefully will do the same for others.”
Several of the sunglasses styles are created with an octagonal-shaped metal cap on the temple, which is inspired by the end of Federer's Wilson tennis racquet. On the outside of the temple, there's a subtle corewire pattern that is meant to mimic a vintage tennis racquet. The temple also has a plaque with the number 8 embedded to highlight
Federer's favorite number, as his birthday is on Aug. 8 and he's had eight
Wimbledon wins.
The lens colors also give a nod to the various tennis courts that Federer has played on, such as the ryegrass at Wimbledon, the red brick at the French Open and the blue Laykold at the
U.S. Open.
“From a product standpoint we work on different shapes, different colors, different lens combinations and the thing that was missing from an assortment standpoint is giving the customer something a bit more sporty, but still feels elevated,” Basilico said. “The collection is really complete with this [performance] addition and from a certain standpoint, it's difficult to continue to innovate in eyewear because it's so limited — with the product we have two lenses and two temples — but I think we did something amazing with Roger and there's innovation there.”
The collection also includes the “Mr. Federer” frame, which Federer debuted at the 2023 Met Gala when he co-chaired the event. The sunglasses style was updated for Federer's debut Oliver Peoples collection to include the performance lenses.
“I wanted to find a way to incorporate it into the collection but in a more sporty way,” Federer said. “With all the collaboration-envisioned details, like the rubber grip nose pads and temple tips, we accomplished this. Alongside, the name we landed on was Mr. Federer, which I hope this style will be quite iconic.”
Going forward, the brand will leverage customer feedback when designing the next three collections, all while working closely with Federer to have a joint vision for the partnership.
“Roger is really a celebrity — he's a true icon of today,” Basilico said. “I don't think there are actually many people that can define in today's world as a true icon — Roger really is one of them. For us, this is really a dream collaboration and we are very proud of this journey. We are just starting and it's going to be a long journey.”