Tennis takes on a distinct hue when entering the grounds of Roland-Garros for the French Open. The fashion follows suit. With the reds and oranges prominent across the Parisian grounds, shoemakers tune their colorways to match. This year, though, offers a unique approach to the clay, with New Balance celebrating gray, Asics embracing Novak Djokovic in red, and Babolat—yes, Babolat—partnering with Benoit Paire on a limited-edition model. Yup, Benoit Paire has his own special-edition sneaker design.

Let’s explore some of the best sneakers you’ll see in Paris this year.

In one of the more startling—and we mean this in the most thrilling version of the word
possible—releases of the Roland-Garros season, French brand Babolat has paired with French player Benoit Paire on a special-edition clay Propulse Fury 3 model. And there’s nothing too bland about the symbolism in this design.

Released on May 8 as a limited global launch—only 48 pairs are being sold in the United States, for example—the white, orange, and black colorway matches his French Open kit from Celio. The Paire model also features distinct callouts on the side, such as the phrase “powered by Ben” and three symbols placed side by side. The tennis racquet and ball are a bit more mundane and self-explanatory, but then things get interesting. The middle symbol is a cocktail glass complete with what appears to be an olive on the rim of the glass. It is meant to symbolize Paire’s party lifestyle and his willingness to taunt those who don’t agree with it. The third symbol is a cat, a reference to a vulgar phrase he yells to opponents after they hit a winner.

Only Paire will wear the model during the French Open, giving the spirited player a unique aesthetic to go with his distinct personality.

With the only signature* shoe in the sport, we can expect something special from New Balance and Coco Gauff every single major. But the 2024 French Open falling in May offers up a style bigger than a fresh colorway for the Coco Gauff CG1 sneaker.

New Balance has long celebrated the color gray as a brand-wide signature color for performance shoes since the 1980s—originally it was meant to help what were primarily white shoes not show use as quickly. What was once an annual May 1 release of gray styles turned into a May-long event in 2024, with the Grey CG1 releasing May 24, ahead of the French Open.

This special-edition Grey Coco goes gray all over and includes hairy suede accenting. Not only does the Grey Coco provide a unique take on the nearly two-year-long run of the signature sneaker style, but it will also stand in sharp contrast to other shoes seen on the Parisian clay.

*A signature sneaker is defined as a model designed in collaboration with an athlete for the specific needs of that athlete and is not an inline model that is given special “player edition” colorways or designs tied to an athlete.

Daniil Medvedev is fully French when it comes to his equipment. He wields a Tecnifibre racquet, and that brand’s parent company, Lacoste, is his head-to-toe sponsor, which makes Medvedev the feature athlete when it comes to Lacoste footwear.

The Russian player added his personal Lacoste-driven logo to his gear at the start of 2023, and his 2024 French Open footwear design is no different. The color blocking on the AG-LT Ultra features a dark blue topped with white. Accents of red highlight the aesthetics, while the Medvedev logo appears in white on the heel.

A non-Medvedev version of the same shoe will be worn by Arthur Fils, a French player sporting the brand at the French Open for the first time since signing with Lacoste in late 2023.

While the 2024 clay line for Asics generally softens with the Gel-Resolution 9 and Solution Speed FF 3 in various shades of blues and yellows with white, the Novak Djokovic-worn Court FF 3 Novak blasts us with red.

It’s an in-your-face reminder—his Lacoste kit will also feature a mixture of red tones—that the world No. 1 is at the top of the ATP rankings list, and he’s doing it on his own terms. It’s also a departure from the two differing blue models he wore at the last two major events earlier this year in Australia and last year in New York City.

The multitoned red on the 2024 clay version of the Court FF 3 Novak, which also features the Asics Tiger stripe in white, includes the Djokovic logo on the heel and Djokovic detailing on the tongue of the sneaker.

Djokovic signed to Asics in 2018 and wore the latest Gel-Resolution model at the time. He later switched to the Court FF model and helped market the launch of the third iteration of the shoe that released in January 2023. Asics has adorned the heel of the shoe with a “24” to again mark the number of major victories for Djokovic.