Be a sport

“Sport for me, even with the risk of being cliche, is a microcosm of life. The rules may sometimes seem arbitrary and you may want to change them but once you’ve accepted them and are in the court, everyone is the same and it’s even game, even when it’s not. You have to try the best you can, keep finding the gaps, hold your end up, help the partner if you have one and could and believe, if there’s a point to play for, there’s the whole game to play for. And much like life, in my head at least, sport is something that doesn’t matter so much but is performed as if it does. And in that contradiction lies its beauty, as it does in life. To be able to be in ‘the zone’ where the body and the mind are in perfect unison, to be able to do what you want to, to be able to engage with passion and yet remain detached from the result is what I enjoy about sport. The other thing, that is probably subsumed in the larger idea of ‘being in the zone’, the level of awareness sport nudges me towards, is what keeps me engrossed in its pursuit. The ‘awareness’ encompasses the physicality, of movement, space, body but also that of the mind, plumbing the layered depths, often braille-reading the nuances, that enjoys a run in the rabbit-hole. It is this sense of awareness that extends to the beauty of a backhand down-the-line drive, as much as to the choice of materials in use. For me, it is as much in the minute grammage of the racquet weight, the feel of the strings as it is in the feel of what I wear. There’s a certain joy in discovering, debating the details and excitement in deciding over them, joys and excitement that often escape the most, save the enthusiasts and experts.

‘Being a Sport’ for me starts from there. There’s a certain sense of child-like enthusiasm in being a sport, in being up for anything, in being ready for something new, without a care about what it might result in. For me, it also means not judging others by the yardstick of my own values. It’s not something I am always able to bring into practice but that’s one of the aims. For me it’s the ability to walk away, after everything, with a smile on your face and joy in your heart is what makes ‘a good sport’.

Nico Sport has been an endeavour of passion that will have its own successful outcome, regardless of the result. The process that we have gone through has already taught us a lot and there will be more learning as more people use our clothes more. I hope we are able to reach enough people who believe in ‘being a sport’, who are aware of feel and touch of what they use, who are mindful of how their consumption affects the planet, rally them around Nico Sport which will deepen the meaning of it, rich in its plurality, yet sharp enough to create its own space in a world full of symbols.”