TL;DR I’m just a long-time fan making well-designed Federer tees and other things that I would want to wear/use myself.
The year was 2001. My sister called me excitedly to tell me about a young Swiss player who had just defeated the legenedary Pete Sampras at Wimbledon. “He plays like no one I’ve seen before!” she screamed into the phone.
At the time, I brushed her excitement off as a touch of exaggeration, chalking it up to the natural inclination of people towards novelty. A few months later, though, I caught a glimpse of the same young Swiss player at the US Open. I knew right then that my sister hadn’t exaggerated at all – this Federer guy was truly something special. From that moment on, I became an ardent fan.
Fast forward to 2022, and Roger Federer bid farewell to tennis. Djokovic and Nadal have since surpassed him in the total Grand Slam count. Contrary to what some might expect, not every Federer fan is heartbroken about other tennis greats breaking his records.
While the loss in the 2019 Wimbledon final still stings, and the inability to conclude his career on his own terms is undeniably sad, the prevailing emotion I carry is gratitude. Gratitude for witnessing greatness in real time, for experiencing the magic that Federer effortlessly conjured with his racquet, and for having a living example that success doesn’t necessitate arrogance.
This site is borne out of that gratitude. There’s a lot of fan made Federer merch out there already, I know that, but I think there’s some room for t-shirts and mugs and totes that show our love for Fed in a more, for lack of a better word, designy way. As a designer by day, I figured I would take a shot at making a few things.
Oh yeah, one last thing. What’s More Feder? More + Feder = Federer! Get it??
—C