Adidas Launches Women’s-Specific Avacourt Tennis Shoe

Top-10 women’s tennis player Garbine Muguruza says the brand-new Avacort tennis shoe from Adidas represents more than a new piece of footwear but signals a totally new direction in women’s-specific product.

The Avacourt, launching March 24, was designed with the female athlete in mind.

Whether insights from female tennis players, anthropometric data or biomechanical testing, Adidas created a baseline of needs designed around women. “We then built on our insights, taking them one step further by analyzing women’s movement patterns on the tennis court and seeing how these differed from those of men,” says Annette Steingass, Adidas senior director of tennis and court sports. “We then incorporated these findings into the design. By leveraging all of these unique insights, we created a shoe that complements the style of play of women athletes as well as the specific need of the female foot.”

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Adidas built the Avacourt on a new last (the form on which a shoe is molded), used only for this silhouette and designed for a better fit for female athletes. A key change comes with how Adidas handled the torsion, or midfoot twist, in the Avacourt by creating more movement in the shoe, one of the starkest differences in needs between building for women and designing for men.

With foot scan data showing a female athlete may have softer arches, the Avacourt embraces softer materials and a new midfoot support saddle to avoid pressure points. A 3D toe cap offers abrasion protection in the main areas female tennis players need it, based on on-court data.

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“I’m excited to see Adidas continuing to push forward and change the game with its product innovation,” says Muguruza, a multiple major winner. “Avacourt is the perfect example of that. It signals change and I’m thrilled to be able to step out on court wearing it.”

Adidas brings the Bounce Pro cushioning to tennis for the first time, combining two densities of the brand’s Bounce foam for a combination of cushioning and support. A monofilament mesh on the upper was designed for lightness and flexibility to help with comfort and breathability.

Steingass says the functional design of the Avacourt was created transparent “so athletes could see and appreciate the beauty of the inner construction.” Each of the technical elements has a specific look, from the sleek silhouette showing the shape of a women’s foot to the external heel counter following a female’s foot anatomy.

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Expect an ongoing mix of new colorways for the Avacourt. A new round of colors designed around the French Open in Paris will soon join the initial March launch colorway. A collaboration with Rich Mnisi—to go with the on-court apparel Adidas and Mnisi debuted this spring and seen prominently at at Indian Wells—offers an immediate designer focus for the Avacourt. Steingass says more collaborations in the second half of 2022 will continue to push forward the women’s-specific Avacourt.