If you’ve ever been to the US Open, you know that the tennis tournament has become a playground, not just for the players, but also for food, beauty, and lately, fashion brands.

Top players such as Venus Williams and Jessica Pegula have collaborated with designers and brands like Khaite, Luar, and Adidas and worn their creations on the court. US Open champion Coco Gauff even debuted her own line of custom apparel and sneakers in partnership with New Balance and Miu Miu.

Michael Prendergast, managing director at Alvarez & Marsal’s consumer and retail group, said the US Open’s transformation from a pure sporting event to a fashion spectacle didn’t come out of nowhere.

He traces its roots back to the OG lawn tennis tournament, Wimbledon, known for its “understated elegance and high fashion quotient,” per Prendergast, alongside a heavy celebrity presence which over time has made the event simply a glamorous place to be.

Keep reading here.—JS

Foot traffic fell 1.3% year over year at American Eagle for August, the first full month after it launched its controversial Sydney Sweeney campaign, according to Pass-by data provided exclusively to Retail Brew.

The campaign “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” has faced criticism for allegedly having eugenics undertones and being hypersexualized, as we reported previously.

American Eagle competitors that also launched denim-themed celebrity campaigns appeared to fare better with foot traffic in August. The Gap, which introduced a viral video featuring the diverse all-female group, Katseye, on August 19 (four weeks after the Sydney Sweeney campaign launch), saw foot traffic climb 2.8% YoY for the month of August, per Pass-by. For the week that began August 25, the first full week after the Gap campaign launched, foot traffic rose 8.5% YoY. At Levi’s, which launched a campaign featuring Beyoncé on August 4, traffic was up 1.8% for the month over last August.

Pass-by uses numerous sources to collect and analyze its foot-traffic data, including infrared sensors, pressure mats, and anonymized data collected from smartphones.

Keep reading here.—AAN

Fresh off its viral denim ad and two years into its turnaround effort led by president and CEO Richard Dickson, Gap Inc. is charting more paths for growth.

The retail group, owner of Gap, Old Navy, Athleta, and Banana Republic, announced this week it’s expanding into beauty and accessories. The beauty effort will start at its Old Navy stores this fall, adding a curated beauty and personal care section to 150 stores, with select stores operating shop-in-shops staffed by beauty associates. It plans to scale further with Old Navy and other portfolio brands in 2026.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Annual Global Retailing Conference today, Dickson said beauty is “one of the fastest growing and most resilient categories in the US,” noting the high-margin business, along with accessories, will serve as a “traffic driver” and help the company “go after attracting a new generation” of younger shoppers.

Keep reading here.—EC