Ben Shelton’s Tennis Footwear Journey In Step With Roger Federer

The first time Ben Shelton played in the U.S. Open singles main draw he did so wearing a pair of Roger Federer’s custom-made Nikes. Federer shipped the shoes to New York from Switzerland just for Shelton. The American’s footwear has had a Federer-inspired twist ever since.

The Shelton-Federer U.S. Open connection occurred in 2022—helped by the fact Shelton was signed to Federer’s agency at the time—and offered a foretaste of the lasting connection between the two players, as Shelton signed with Federer-backed On in March 2023, playing on the professional tour during his first full year wearing not only On’s original The Roger Pro, but also playing and testing The Roger Pro 2 prototypes, some of which Shelton still has.

“I think, certainly, he still has his footprint in the shoe process, in the soul of the shoe, not literally but figuratively,” Shelton tells me about the On shoe bearing Federer’s name. “That is really cool. When I played the U.S. Open wearing a custom pair of his shoes, the shoes he actually wore, [I saw] we have a very similar foot size, shape, everything. Moving into the On shoe was a pretty easy transition for me.”

Shelton has spent much of his career in The Roger Pro 2—“I was there with the very first tests of the Pro 2 and I still have some of those models at home in my closet,” Shelton says—version made for him. At the launch of the Pro 2, the only clay model from On was the original The Roger Pro, the brand’s first performance tennis model that Federer debuted on court in March 2021 after he became an investor in the brand in 2019.

As On started prepping for the release of The Roger Pro 3, Shelton was again part of the prototyping and testing process. “I think at this point I know the feeling that I like. I know what I’m looking for,” Shelton says. “I know what feels good and what looks good. It has been cool to be a part of the process.”

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The 23-year-old American switched to the then-unreleased The Roger Pro 3 for the 2026 Australian Open (it launched at retail on April 21), keeping Shelton’s tennis footwear in lockstep with Federer for nearly four years.

It’s all so fitting since Shelton serves as the brand’s face of Federer’s namesake footwear model and the two have nearly identical wide feet. That helped Shelton transition into On quickly when he first signed and has since been able to “mold it as it pertains to my performance and how I move.”

As the first male tennis player On added to a sponsorship deal, Shelton has long said he enjoys being part of growing with the Switzerland-based company in the sport. “I think it is a cool opportunity as On expands as a company, as their tennis department expands,” he says. “As they become more and more innovative as a footwear company and performance brand I get to see and be around and give my input.”

Shelton’s on-court choices have a definite Federer element, but so do his off-court styles. Across Shelton’s wide range of On shoes, the one he gravitates toward most for off-court wear is The Roger Clubhouse. “For me, I wear more casual shoes than running shoes, so I end up wearing a lot of the shoes in The Roger family,” he says.

“Whether on court of off court, I think the style, the colorways, are the coolest opportunities for me,” Shelton says. “At the end of the day that is the opportunity to influence culture. To be able to be in some of these meetings and put some of my personal touch on a specific colorway or a certain shoe is really cool.”

Maybe someday Shelton will return the favor and ship Federer a pair of On shoes he helped style.

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