Remember last week when we were all prepping our bodies and minds for the summer heat? Even the plants came out to play! But it looks like the summer weather got served. Our photographer Sarah Blais (weather aside) decided she would jump into the tennis courts anyways to figure out what this Spring’s instructors would be sporting.
If you’ve ever brushed up on the history of Tennis in Canada, you’d be familiar with the 130-year-old, 18-court, Toronto Lawn Tennis Club. Sarah met with instructor Simon Bartram who has been there for 22 years (he says he started when he was 11…). Since then, the uniform has been all white with a maximum 10% trim of colour on any garment. Simon says it’s difficult in the morning “Hmm… white, white or… white?.”
Apparently in France and England Tennis began as a sport for the Aristocrats. The crisp, all-white uniform was put in place to separate the ‘Riffraff’ from the wealthy and elite who could afford cleaning — the tradition has carried on but without the same connotation. Simon says, as long as they’re wearing white at Wimbledon they’ll be wearing white at Toronto Lawn Tennis Club. Apparently even his 5-year-old son will get dressed in his white tennis gear before playing by himself at home (cute…). The uniforms at this club are sponsored by Wilson.
The next two instructors Sarah met with both come from The Lytton Park Tennis club. Shawn Reynolds is the 38-year-old owner whose been teaching tennis since he was 16.
He started Lytton Park out with 6 kids on one court and eventually needed a second person (this was 9 years ago). He now employs 35 instructors and operates out of 10-12 locations making it the largest tennis club in the GTA. The instructors take on 3-6 kids for their program and have an array of activities for them to mix things up. As Shawn says, if we need to get kids outside we better have something comparable to the video games they’re playing.
Shawn says it’s cool for the kids to wear whatever they want (except ripped jean shorts and crocs!), but they do supply polo shirts, white shorts, hats and waterbottles with their logo on it. All the uniforms come from a company that practices sustainability on the environment (amazing!). One of Shawn’s favorite parts to his job is seeing the kid-parent relationship grow in the interactions created by the sport. One of the tougher parts is when the kids figure out how to hit hard and perfectly but accidently aim at his nose. When he’s on the court he tends to wear all white to stay cool in the summer. His shoes & racquet are Head (shout out to Tammy!) this shirt and shorts are Lacoste (which he got from Merchant of Tennis), and his hat and glasses are Puma.
Lindsey is a 27-year-old instructor with the club, but has been playing tennis since she was 5. Her favorite part of the job is seeing kids learn and fall in love with something she loves. It bothers her to see misconceptions about the sport — after all you just need a racquet and a ball! Apparently the program leaves 10% of their spots for outreach kids.
Lytton park believes everyone should have access to play. Lindsay said sometimes the little kids will take their racquets and play lightsabers — or turn them into instruments and make little bands (really cute). Her court attire consists of Wilson shoes, Nike skirts, Adidas track jackets, and sometimes the clubs polo and hat. As a girl she prefers rocking the skirt for comfort, and gets most of her athletic clothes from Winners (good deals!).
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Sarah Blais shoots Toronto Standard’s Uniform Project. Follow her on Twitter at @sarahblais_.
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