Wimbledon, one of the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournaments in England, with a legacy of over 150 years, has fascinated players and its fans worldwide with a surprisingly ordinary item: the Wimbledon Towel.
Neither the top players nor the trophies, but the Wimbledon towel, has attracted the audience and the stars. It is considered one of the most sought-after souvenirs in the world of tennis.
What’s so special about the Wimbledon Towel?
The journey of a Wimbledon Towel starts from over 7000 miles away, in the heart of India, in Gujarat.
Initially, Wimbledon’s towels were made by the Manchester Cotton Mill named Christy, founded in 1850. Christy, Britain’s most respected textile brand, founded by Henry and Richard Christy, is globally known for its premium quality linen and has been selling the official Wimbledon Towel collection since 1987, after it was named its chief supplier. Christy is also popularly known for designing its earlier pieces for the Queen of England.
A major turning point came in 2006 when Welspun, India’s leading textile company, entered the picture. It joined hands with Britain’s Christy and shifted the manufacturing base to Gujarat, India. From then on, the Wimbledon towel became an amalgamation of British heritage and Indian craftsmanship.
Welspun’s Living Facilities, Gujarat, took over its manufacturing in 2010, while Christy retained the responsibility of curating the design and branding. Since then, the iconic Wimbledon towels that the players took home were woven by the skilled hands of Indian craftsmen.
Making of the Wimbledon Towel
The towel design usually begins 18 months before the tournament, with the designers working day and night to prepare the colour palette and designs. The men’s towel retained the classic colour scheme- green, purple and gold- while the women’s towel featured a new look, in red and white, with people calling it the “strawberry towel”.
These towels are specially designed and made using the yarn-dyed jacquard weaving technique. In this technique, at first, the yarns are dyed, then they are woven on a jacquard loom into the desired patterns. These are woven into the fabric, not the surface, and they are also highly durable. These towels take almost a week to produce. The towels use Christy's HygroCotton technology to enhance softness and absorbency.
The towels are manufactured in two places in India – one in Vapi, Gujarat’s Valsad district, and another in Anjar, located in Kutch.
A commitment to sustainable Manufacturing
With a view to addressing environmental concerns, one of the most striking things about the Anjar plant is that, in this facility, manufacturing is done using treated sewage water instead of consuming freshwater, reducing the plant’s dependence on freshwater resources.
The remarkable part is that Welspun, India’s textile company, won the trust of Britain’s most iconic heritage brand, Christy, by successfully proving its worth by producing reliable world-class towels without compromising on the design or quality.
For years, the tournament followed a strict policy where every player had to return the towel after the match. But over time, this rule became difficult to enforce, and the players failed to adhere strictly to the policy. It has come to light that nearly 15% of towels were not returned. According to the reports from the 2025 Championships, 500 towels went missing every single day.
A Towel Everyone Wants
Some of the world’s biggest players have strongly expressed their fascination with using Wimbledon’s towels without any guilt. Novak Djokovic once joked that he carries an extra suitcase to carry home his towels and also tries to sweat more as a justification to use more of their towels. Roger Federer commented that he enjoys taking these towels home and gifting them to his loved ones. Iga Swiatek has also playfully admitted her fetish of collecting Wimbledon’s towels.
The Wimbledon players receive the towel before the tournament. The fans can, however, purchase them through Christy’s official website, where the towels are priced at £40, guest towels are priced at £18, and face cloths are priced at £12.
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