Fred Perry was born in May 1909 in Stockport, near Manchester, in the north west of England.
He was an English tennis player who dominated the sport in the 1930s.
During the 1930s he won 8 Grand Slam singles titles and 6 Grand Slam doubles and mixed doubles titles. He was the world number one tennis player from 1934 to 1936.
Fred Perry was the first player to win all 4 Grand Slam singles titles.
He was also a very good table tennis player, and he won the Table Tennis World Championship in 1929.
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- In action at Wimbledon in the early 1930s
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- In action at Wimbledon in the early 1930s
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- After winning the US Open Singles Championship in 1935
After three years as the world number one amateur tennis player, Fred Perry turned professional in 1936. The British tennis authorities didn’t like this because they believed very strongly that tennis should stay as an amateur sport. As a result Perry had to leave the country to play tournaments and ended up settling in the USA. In 1939 he became a U.S. Citizen and served in the US Air Force in the Second World War.
He won two more major tennis competitions as a professional – The US Pro Major in 1938 and 1941.
In the late 1940s, Fred Perry met an Austrian footballer called Tibby Wegner who had invented a special device that sports people could wear on their wrist to reduce sweating. Perry made a few changes to the design and created the first sweatband.
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- A Fred Perry sweatband
Perry started to wear the sweatband when he played tennis in order to promote it. Wegner and Perry noticed that people were very interested in sports clothing and decided to make a range of sports shirts. They launched the Fred Perry tennis shirt at Wimbledon in 1952, and it was very successful.
The tennis shirt was produced in only white until the late 1950s, when customers started to request more colour choices.
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- Early Fred Perry tenniswear
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- An early advertisement
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- An advertisement in the 1950s
The Fred Perry logo is a laurel wreath, which was the original Wimbledon logo. The Wimbledon tennis club has very strict dress rules that state all players must wear white clothes. This very traditional rule continues even now, and is one reason why the first Fred Perry tennis shirts were only produced in white.
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- The Fred Perry logo
In 1995, the Fred Perry brand was bought by Japanese clothing company ‘Hit Union Japan’ (who also distribute Puma in Japan).
In 2013, the Fred Perry brand’s global sales were over £120 million (£120,000,000) – which is approximately ¥20 billion (¥20,000,000,000)
Fred Perry died in Melbourne, Australia in 1995. He was 85 years old.
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- Fred Perry standing next to his statue at Wimbledon in the early 90s
Sporting achievements
Grand Slam Singles Winner
Australian Open 1934
French Open 1935
Wimbledon 1934, 1935, 1936
US Open 1933, 1934, 1935
Grand Slam Doubles Winner
Australian Open 1934
French Open 1933
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles Winner
French Open 1932
Wimbledon 1935, 1936
US Open 1932
Table Tennis World Champion 1929
Video
Watch a short video of Fred Perry winning his second US Open Singles Championship in 1934.
He is the player at the bottom of the screen!
He also gives a short interview at the end of the video.
