He's smug
The guy has his own logo. He wears his own logo, whether it be a baseball cap, jacket, or pants. His family all wears baseball caps with his logo on them. To top it off, when he unwraps a new tennis racquet, it's in a clear plastic bag with the RF logo on it. It's hard to be more pretentious than to have your own logo.
Just like Tiger.
He does ads for Rolex, which reinforces the actually incorrect stereotype that tennis fans and players are a bunch of rich people with unlimited money to blow.
at the end of his recent Wimbledon victory, his 15th Grand Slam victory, a new all-time record. He was interviewed on court about how he felt about breaking the record, and he said that he doesn't pay attention to the records and it's all about tennis. Would be nice if that were true, but the interviewer made him turn around to reveal the '15' embroidered in gold on his RF-logo jacket that he pulled out of his bag after winning the match.
I could go on, but I got to go.
Fair enough. How I see it...
While I think the jacket was over the top, overall I personally don't see him as smug for the amount he has accomplished. When you are the best at what you do for so many years, it is impossible to remain exactly who you were when you were fighting to get on tour. However I think for his wealth of achievements he has handled himself better than most would have.
As for his personal brand. I'm a Federer fan and I play a lot of tennis but I will still never buy one of his hats or shirts. However, from a business stand point I can completely understand why he branded himself and respect his decision. It always perplexes me to hear so many people disagree with a personal brand and say how arrogant that is. However, when it comes down to it I know if those people were put in the position to make millions off of their name 99% of them would do it ( in a gambling forum a 100%, that is for sure)
