Visitors to the Wimbledon tennis tournament are driving a secondary market for limited-edition merchandise, notably a new strawberry-colored towel introduced at the 2026 Championships. The All England Club, which organizes the event, described the towel as an unofficial “fourth colour” alongside the traditional purple, green, and white. Manufactured by Christy, the official Wimbledon towel supplier, the red towels have rapidly gained popularity, outselling the classic colors by approximately 20 percent in online retail.
During the tournament’s first week, Wimbledon sold 6,330 red towels on site, compared to 7,423 green and purple towels, out of a total of 27,500 towels sold from 290,000 merchandise items. Daniel Ashmore, head of retail, merchandise, and licensing at Wimbledon, expressed surprise at the towel’s swift rise to being the event’s “number one bestseller” online. Prices for the towels at the event are £40, but resales on platforms like eBay have reached up to £55, with other listings showing prices above £50.
The red towel resales are part of a broader trend of fans purchasing limited-edition Wimbledon merchandise for profit. This phenomenon follows years of issues with towel shortages and thefts at the tournament. Wimbledon officials have acknowledged that players often take towels home unofficially; for example, around 500 towels were not returned during the first week of the 2025 Championships. That year, women’s singles champion Iga Swiatek was notably caught taking towels, which earned her the nickname the “towel thief.” Swiatek, who exited the 2026 tournament in the third round, commented that she had given away all her towels from the previous year and joked that she would continue “stealing” towels because they represented the best kind of tournament souvenir.
In addition to towels, other Wimbledon-branded items have sparked resale activity. Evian reusable water bottles, which are provided only to players, officials, ball personnel, and accredited press as part of the tournament’s efforts to reduce plastic waste, are unavailable for purchase at the official shop. However, these bottles have surfaced online with significant mark-ups. Full 700ml bottles from the 2026 tournament have been listed for over £170, while a bottle allegedly used by Stefanos Tsitsipas in his recent match against Novak Djokovic was listed for more than £500.
The emergence of this secondary market highlights the demand for exclusive Wimbledon memorabilia and the challenges the All England Club faces in managing limited-edition merchandise and controlling unofficial resale activity during the Championships.