- New Balance launched the Coco CG2 "Roland Garros" on May 26, 2026, a women's $160 release in soft grey suede with a cream midsole and pale pink outsole, dropping during New Balance's annual Grey Days celebration.
- The accompanying custom apparel kit features a pleated tennis dress with mesh overlays and grey-and-pink palette, plus a walk-on jacket with an asymmetrical zip closure, zipper cuffs, and structured shoulder detailing.
- Gauff kicked off her French Open title defense with a dominant 6-4, 6-0 first-round win, debuting the kit and shoe on-court in Paris, the same city where she secured her second Grand Slam singles title at the 2025 French Open.
- New Balance first signed Gauff at just 14 years old and redid her contract in 2022, making it one of the richest deals in women's tennis, a partnership that has since produced two signature shoe lines.
Coco Gauff and New Balance are back in Paris. The Boston-based brand launched the New Balance Coco CG2 “Roland Garros” during its annual Grey Days event, a month-long May celebration of the grey tones the brand has leaned on since its 1980s running heyday.
The campaign centres on a greyish-purple upper with pale pink on the outsole and a custom Coco croissant graphic on the tongue tag, a playful tournament-specific detail that captures the Paris spirit without being heavy-handed.
“As everyone knows, Paris is my favorite city and this kit captures everything I love about it — elegance and sophistication with a little bit of edge,” said Gauff in a press release. “We wanted to create something that lets me feel confident, while honoring the fashion and culture that makes the city so iconic.”
The 22-year-old arrives in Paris as the fourth seed, looking to become just the second woman in recent years to repeat as Roland Garros champion.
This is a massive moment for New Balance, whose tennis division is anchored entirely around Gauff, a roster that also includes Tommy Paul, Sorana Cirstea, McCartney Kessler, and Jordan Thompson.
Off the court, much like Venus Williams recently landed a landmark deal with Gatorade and Naomi Osaka partnered with Olly Wellness on a lifestyle campaign, Gauff continues to expand her brand footprint beyond tennis.
She recently became a global ambassador for Mercedes-Benz, with the German automaker announcing the partnership in late 2025. Her other current partners include L’Oréal’s Carol’s Daughter, Rolex, Bose, Head, Barilla, UPS, and Baker Tilly.
For New Balance, this campaign follows a string of high-profile Gauff activations, including the Coco Delray lifestyle shoe launch in March 2025 and a high-fashion New Balance x Miu Miu collaboration in April 2025.
Takeaways
This is more than a shoe drop, it’s New Balance doubling down on the strategy that’s made it the most culturally credible brand in women’s tennis right now.
Every outfit and campaign is grounded in Gauff’s personality (her interests, background, and story) and the Miu Miu collaboration last year proved the brand is willing to go further than any competitor in blurring the lines between performance and high fashion.
That makes this Roland Garros campaign more than a colour story; it’s a proof point that Gauff and New Balance aren’t just selling tennis gear, they’re building a cultural moment around every tournament she enters.
The retail pair being identical to the on-court pair? That’s deliberate accessibility, it lets fans literally wear what a Grand Slam champion wears on the world’s biggest clay court.
With Gauff chasing back-to-back Roland Garros titles, could this become New Balance’s most commercially successful tennis campaign ever? New Balance already pushed boundaries with the Miu Miu collab, is a luxury fashion house partnership at a Grand Slam the new template for elite sportswear branding?
