Novak Djokovic Receives Special Sneaker Delivery During Wimbledon

Novak Djokovic received a special delivery while in London for Wimbledon 2025, a pair of white Asics sneakers with custom art, another project in a line of personalized sneaker designs from Swithadot Studios.

Founded by Satja Grabuloski and based in North Macedonia since 2016, he’s grown his business to 30-plus in-house artists located across the world, designing custom art on sneakers for the likes of Djokovic, Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James and plenty more. While soccer has been a key sport for Swithadot, the move into tennis excites Grabuloski.

“Tennis is a space we’re planning to focus on much more moving forward,” Grabuloski tells me. “My favorite so far has to be the OneOfAKindS pair created for Novak Djokovic. It is unmatched in every way.”

In the recently delivered pair of shoes, Swithadot used an all-white Asics Japan S as the base and the art focuses on two Serbian double-headed eagles across mismatched color paint spatters in Serbian colors. There’s also a goat mark—it’s exactly the same as used on pairs done for Ronaldo and James—and a nod to Djokovic’s foundation placed on the back tabs.

While Swithadot has created for other tennis players, such as Donna Vekic, another memorable project in 2025 was a pair created for tour pro Aljaz Bedene and delivered during the Australian Open. This one featured Australian koalas and golden wattle flowers.

“The studio has had a strong presence in soccer for years, alongside basketball and handball. The next bit step is bringing color and storytelling into the traditionally ‘white’ sports of tennis,” Grabuloski says. “The future of garment design and luxury shopping in general lies in hyper-personalization as a way of adding sense and value, and we’re pushing forward in many directions to be part of that future.”

Grabuloski started his studio “with nothing more than a Sharpie and a £2 pair of white canvas sneakers.” His first big break came in 2017 within the world of handball and then in soccer in 2018 when a pair of cleats featuring Marvel’s Hulk got noticed. “That moment sparked real interest among athletes who wanted to tell their personal stories through their footwear,” he says, “and set everything in motion.”

Now commissions come from all directions, sometimes directly from a celebrity or their team, other times through agents or management. With the growth of content creation culture, there’s also a surge in demand to use the art as a gift during content videos. “We work closely with brands looking to celebrate sponsored athletes,” he says, “or add a unique creative moment to an event or rollout.”

Most of the requests for athletes come for performance shoes, but casual sneakers and apparel are a close second. Lately Swithadot has seen an uptick in request for custom running shoes. Common themes include celebrating a home country or city, along with family tributes and personal favorites, from movies to foods.

“My creative process always begins with the client’s idea, no matter how nonspecific it is,” Grabuloski says. “That is the magical part of the process, as the refining through visual mockups is done together with the client, until the story is captured perfectly. At the end of the day, we’re storytellers and that’s what makes this work so fulfilling.”

To make it all last, Grabuloski invested to develop a paint formula to give Swithadot a paint that could not only stand up to the pressures a pro athlete puts in their shoes—after-market paint is known to dissolve in minutes—but also standardize the artistic process. Now Swithadot Studios has its own “Colors” formula. “Everything we apply by hand is nearly as durable as what comes off the brand’s production lines,” Grabuloski says, adding he plans to sell the paint by the end of 2025.

For now, the special paint pairs with custom art, helping tell stories for athletes and celebrities, including Djokovic at Wimbledon.