Coco Gauff’s big win at the 2023 US Open was a major career high for the 19-year-old tennis ingenue, who’s only at the cusp of a world-shaking rise to stardom. It was also a big moment for Barilla, the pasta company that’s inexplicably one of Gauff’s few professional sponsors.
Gauff is famously choosy with her sponsors, only partnering with a handful thus far. She endorses New Balance and Head for gear, Rolex for fancy watches, and UPS for, uh, sending packages, I guess.
That she also endorses Barilla, the world’s largest pasta company, is a bizarre fact not lost on severaal US Open spectators. Coco Gauff and big pasta, working together? More likely than you think.
Like New Balance makes sense and something like UPS can be explained by way of its many endorsement deals — UPS has ties with everything from pro golf to college sports — but Italian pasta-maker Barilla?
I mean, if being endorsed by a pasta company means free food, sign me up. It’s more just like… why?
Gauff’s inimitable red New Balance top even received a Barilla-themed update for the US Open, as the pasta company became only the second brand to place its logo atop Gauff’s get-up.
Barilla clearly believes in Gauff enough to pay up for prime placement, which is, like, yeah, cool. She’s worth believing in, for sure. I suppose the fact that even pasta stans Coco is indicative of just how likable she is.
Given that Gauff is very specific with the brands she co-signs, there’s probably some personal connection there.
I suppose if I was offered a similar opportunity to partner with a grocery store brand that I myself frequently purchased, I’d be working with Lay’s and whatever company makes those fuji apples I love so well, Now that I think about it, actually sounds pretty sweet.
Barilla and Gauff have apparently been together long enough for the pasta company to describe the tennis star as a “longstanding partner” so this is, apparently, not a new development.
In that case, why are we still waiting on…
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