As one of the tennis world’s legendary champions, Roger Federer has a unique, unmatched experience in fusing sports utility with chic design. When ON Running, an established but relatively niche running and sports footwear brand, saw that Federer was often seen wearing ON shoes in between his globetrotting tennis matches, they reached out to him and the Swiss duo soon established a mutual partnership.

In 2020, the partnership revealed their first product, named The Roger. It was a “tennis-inspired sneaker” that was “taken to new levels of performance and comfort with Swiss engineering”, featuring ON’s patented CloudTec technology. Two years and several iterations of shoes later, we arrive at the present day.

This time, Federer and ON are bringing in another mastermind to seal the deal – Ronnie Fieg, designer and founder of fashion and streetwear label KITH. Together, the trio produced their most recent series of shoes, named The Roger RF2. The highlight of this new collection is an extremely limited, high-value drop. It includes two pairs of shoes: a mid-cut The Roger Clubhouse Mid designed by Federer and a low-cut The Roger Pro designed by Fieg.

Federer put a highly personal and heartfelt spin on the Mid silhouette – covering and staining the clean white synthetic leather with reddish clay, signifying his entry into tennis, the sport that would later dominate his life and define his career. In Federer’s own words, “My first challenger was on clay, my first satellite was on clay, the first player I beat was on clay – clay came first.” On the other hand, Fieg opted for creating a blank slate, one that the owner of The Roger Pro could ‘soil’ themselves. He even included a bag of clay, accompanied by instructions on how to properly clay-coat the surface of the shoe.

What’s really fascinating about this limited-edition set is how personal each sneaker feels to the creator. Roger Federer’s Clubhouse Mids are symbolic about a whole range of significant ‘firsts’ in his lifetime – something anybody can relate to. Meanwhile, Fieg imbued his own pair with a deep understanding of street and sneaker culture, as well as of wants and needs of street and sneaker communities. The clincher of it all, fully justifying the US$550 price tag? The limited-edition box set comes with both the mid-cut and low-cut shoes, individually signed by Federer and Fieg respectively. It’s any tennis, sneaker or streetwear-lover’s dream come true.

Unfortunately, the Roger RF2 set has sold out following its KITH-exclusive drop on 29 Aug 2022 (though chances are that they’ll begin to resell on SNKRDUNK Marketplace in due time). Not to worry, though – if you were looking to cop this silhouette no matter what, general release versions of The Roger Clubhouse Mid are still available on KITH’s online store – you’ll just need to play some clay court tennis in them to stain them the same way Federer did his. Check out the campaign imagery below for reference.

If you’re looking for another sports-themed sneaker pair, check out the Nike Dunk “World Championship” Low and High.