Each Championship, the AELTC commission an official Equipment Census of equipment, apparel and shoes used by all players at the tournament including all singles, doubles, wheelchair, boys, girls and veterans. This is the only tournament in the calendar year where this is completed officially in full.
In 2017 Wilson with 175 racquets in play regained the Number 1 racquet in play from Babolat who was the leading racquet in 2016. There was the first ‘draw’ between the brands with the equal number of racquets in use in 2015. In 2017, Head also grew with over 6% more racquets in play, and Yonex was the fastest growing brand with 17 additional racquets and also had the most Champions using its brand with 7.
With many players changing to specialist grass shoes for the UK based grass-court season, Nike continues to win the count at Wimbledon and in 2017 had just over 25% of players choosing their shoes, with Adidas and Lotto in second and third place – but the fastest growing shoe brand at The Championships in 2017 was Mizuno who have grown from no shoes in play in 2014 to having 57 players in 2017.
What 2018 will reveal will be analysed by SPORTS MARKETING SURVEYS INC. who will be undertaking the thirty–third official Wimbledon Equipment Census.