“To be honest, I’m no sneakerhead,” says Daniella Kallmeyer, the New York designer known for her sophisticated and sensual takes on tailoring and urbane sportswear separates. And yet athletics—particularly women’s sports—has become a more central part of her life over the last decade or so, she says, in part because of her ongoing engagement with the players themselves. That has caused her, she says, “to really fall in love with sports from the lens of the athlete.”
Today, Kallmeyer is solidifying that love not with a ring, but a shoe. The designer is revealing a sneaker collaboration with Nike: a sleek update to Nike’s Tennis Centre style, which she has rendered in a putty-colored suede and finished with antiqued hardware details. “When this opportunity came about,” she says, “I really asked myself, ‘Well, how can we refine an iconic, classically sports-driven silhouette and fold it into the wardrobe of the Kallmeyer woman?’”
This is not Kallmeyer’s first dalliance with the mega brand. It was Australian tennis player Rennae Stubbs who initially introduced the designer to women’s basketball and ultimately connected her to Nike, which then led to the brand hosting Cafe Kallmeyer during WNBA All-Star Weekend last summer.
Photo: Collier Schorr
The shoe was originally designed for tennis and, the current US Open mania aside, the sport is indeed having a moment in both pop culture (think the film Challengers) and fashion. “Everybody’s excited about tennis,” Kallmeyer says. “And I think that’s such a beautiful, exciting, and interesting thing. Having just gone through this Knicks final with the city, I love seeing that same thing that’s now happening across cultures and industries because of tennis.”
Kallmeyer’s take is decidedly elegant and streamlined, adding a subtle bit of patina to an already rather restrained footwear style. “What’s cool about the direction that we took is it’s not a performance shoe—it’s a lifestyle shoe,” Kallmeyer explains. “I think that [tennis culture has] a lot of overlap with my community, my clientele, and my personal interests, especially if you think more about tennis as a spectator rather than as a sport. In general, there’s a refinement to tennis. There is an excellence to tennis as a sport and as a medium.”
Photo: Collier Schorr
Photo: Collier Schorr
