Wilson Pro Staff Racket Goes Classic In New Release

The longest-running racket franchise in tennis embraces that heritage when Wilson launches the Pro Staff 97 Classic on Jan. 15. For a franchise that first launched in 1983, Wilson didn’t want to lose the history and feel of the heritage frame in the ever-evolving landscape of tennis rackets, choosing to turn the Pro Staff line into a nostalgia-reaching frame complete with the racket’s evolved technology.

“Pro Staff has been such an integral part of our brand and will continue to be so,” Michael Schaeffer, Wilson global product director of racquet sports, tells me. “Based on how the game is evolving, we faced this decision of do you modernize and change the Pro Staff to a point it is no longer recognizable, or do you give it its space and maintain the DNA as true as possible and bring back the classic name?”

The decision was clear. “We wanted to embrace our heritage,” Schaeffer says. “It is such an integral part of the entire Wilson lineage of tennis, not only our rackets. It is an important part of our business and our brand.”

After 43 years, the Pro Staff remains a Pro Staff, now as a “classic” that allows the brand to “really create something we felt was truly and 100% authentic to the DNA of Pro Staff and the heritage and memories and legacy this franchise created.”

To get there, Wilson dipped back into the Pro Staff archives for a visual identity and a name. The new launch comes in black with iconography and fonts in white that link to the 1980s. The red and yellow that play prominently throughout the franchise return as accents on the frame. Schaeffer says they wanted to create not only a racket that plays like a classic Pro Staff, but one that has the same look, embracing the nostalgia that many players have of using the racket as a junior, in college or in past tournaments. “We wanted to evoke all those great memories this franchise has given to players all over the world,” he says. Wilson also is launching a line of bags with a similar look.

When the Pro Staff originally launched it featured an 85-square-inch head size, among oversized options. Roger Federer really defined the evolution of a frame that became a 90-square-inch head before Federer moved it into a 95 and eventually a 97.

The “classic” name first appeared on a Pro Staff from 1992 to 1994. Schaeffer says there’s been enough time since Federer evolved the Pro Staff to a 97-square-inch head that “now it has earned that 97 Classic name.”

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Technically speaking, the Pro Staff 97 Classic retains much of the same layup and geometry as the Pro Staff v14 and embraces a traditional recipe of graphite and Kevlar braiding known throughout the history of the franchise. The new model features exposed carbon fiber in the top half of the hoop, highlighting how the racket was one of the first—and certainly one of the most popular—to bring carbon fiber into the game.

The design launches in two models, with the Pro Staff 97 Classic a 315-gram version with a 21.5 mm beam and the Pro Staff 97L Classic adding about one millimeter to the beam size and dropping to 290 grams. “We wanted to right size the line and narrow down to the models that are working with players,” Schaeffer says.

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On the pro tour, expect to see Jiří Lehečka using the racket.

All along development, Wilson aimed to find a pathway that kept the racket recognizable to its history and accessible to its fans. “It is such an integral part of the history and legacy of the Wilson brand, we wanted to ensure we kept it around for our brand and for the fans and players who have used this racket,” Schaeffer says. “No matter what, everyone has a Pro Staff story when you ask them about their tennis journey.” Those stories, much like the new line, are becoming classic.

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