Roger Federer purchased a pair of Oliver Peoples sunglasses over two decades ago. Now he’s helping design his own collection with the Los Angeles-based brand and sporting them on the red carpet of the MET Gala and Academy Award.
Federer and Oliver Peoples announced the pair will partner on a four-collection effort, with the first offering up six new sunglass frames on March 13, a mix of both on-court and off-court styles. “Sunglasses are something I’ve enjoyed as my sport has required me to chase the sun 80% of my life,” Federer says. “One of the main goals of our collection was to create sunglasses that could be utilized in every aspect of one’s routine—off or on the court.”
The RF | Oliver Peoples collection gives the tennis legend a new business foray into the style space and stretches the eyewear brand into its first-ever high-performance sports lifestyle collection and first shield style design.
Rocco Basilico, Oliver Peoples CEO, tells me that as a “true icon of our generation,” it can be rare to find an ambassador with such global appeal as Federer. “His impact is legendary and reaches beyond the world of tennis,” he says. “A brand is all about reputation, and Roger has one of the highest.”
Federer, who wore the OP Lachman Sun frames at the 2023 Met Gala and then broke out a co-designed RF | Oliver Peoples frame for the Academy Awards red carpet on March 10, says the partnership is about giving new styles a distinct design. “I’m a big fan of details,” he says. “That’s why I think the collection looks so impressive.”
Elements include a number “8” plaque—a number special to Federer to represent his birthday, 8-8-81, and his number of Wimbledon titles—a custom corewire pattern inspired by the threading patterns of the strings on tennis rackets and an octagonal RF metal logo piece at the temple tip. The octagonal shape comes inspired by the butt cap of a racket. Each pair also features the RF logo on the plaque, temple tip and lenses.
The designs offer six color-enhancement lenses designed to boost dominant colors specific to environments like water, forest or the city, polarized lenses to reduce the sun’s glare and mirrored lenses. The frames include rubber grip nose pads and temple tips for consistent fit during performance, whether on a bike trail, downhill skiing or in the middle of a tennis point. “We wanted to ensure the frames fit well and do not slide,” Federer says. “With this, we created rubber grip details that sit on the back of your ears and nose. Especially with the adjustable rubber nose pads, the frames are comfortable and look strong on your face, without being too tight.” Each pair is no more than 1.2 ounces.
The flagship model in the collection is the namesake Mr. Federer frame. “This shape is what I wore to the Met Gala, and I wanted to find a way to incorporate it into the collection but in a more sporty way,” says the 20-time major tennis champion, adding he hopes the name and style will be “iconic.” The hybrid design is meant for both on and off the court, comes in five different frame colors and is available as an optical option.
The R-1 is another hybrid design from the collection, also in five different colors.
The collection includes the brand’s first-ever shield styles, the R-4 and R-5. The R-4 has a semi-matte bio-nylon top bar, while the R-5 goes more minimalist with a Windsor rim top bar. “Shields are very new for me,” Federer says. “I thought, ‘let’s give it a go and see.’ I love the way they turned out. I don’t think we’ve seen shields like this in the market that are both high-performance and luxurious.”
Adding the shield style to the brand offers a fresh approach for Oliver Peoples and for the stylized performance space. “We believe there is nothing like it in the market—a shield that is elegant, approachable, stylish, comfortable and high performance,” Basilico says. “It was such a great opportunity to invest in a shape that is so multi-functional, whether for strong sun protection or a lightweight accessory to pair with skiing.”
In the lifestyle category, the R-2 presents a semi-rimless metal sunglass with double bridge detail and the R-3, a bold acetate frame with an Oliver Peoples signature key-hole bridge.
The frames colorings across the collection came inspired by the green ryegrass of Wimbledon in London, the crushed red brick at Roland Garros in Paris and the blue colors seen throughout the U.S. Open in New York City.
Having Federer as both a fan of the brand and now a collaborator makes the new partnership that much more special, Basilico says, adding that this first collaboration is about creating a collection to challenge what high-performance eyewear can be. “We hope this eyewear is embraced by anyone who wants to feel elegant on and off the court,” he says, “without sacrificing performance.”
