Robin Haase Plays For Something Bigger At The Olympics
A flash of KLABU orange has been gracing the Paris 2024 Games - that’s Dutch tennis player Robin Haase, the very first athlete to wear KLABU at the Olympics and support sports projects in refugee camps. Discover his story.
Robin debuting KLABU at Roland Garros in 2021.
Clad in KLABU Green in Lille, 2022. © Laurent Sanson/Play In Challenger
In KLABU White at the Liberna Open in 2022. © Getty Images
Haase and Middelkoop win the ABN Amro Open in 2022. © Jan Kok | Boomerang Fotografie
Rocking KLABU Purple at the Australian Open in 2023. © Getty Images
Robin has been raising awareness for the power of sports to change lives since he debuted KLABU at Roland Garros in 2021. His support grew and grew and now reaches a climax at the Olympics.
Robin telling us he wanted to wear KLABU while playing for the Netherlands at Paris 2024 was a real highpoint, because it will bring KLABU to the highest stage. Our on-court history together in the last three years has seen Robin play in a rainbow of KLABU colours, sprinting, serving, drop-shotting and volleying his way across courts worldwide. In 2022, Robin secured a first title wearing KLABU and supporting refugees, when he won the ABNAmro Open with doubles partner Matwé Middelkoop.
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"I’ve been wearing all sorts of different brands, some bigger than others, but this is a very special one. I don’t know if it makes me feel different but it gives a good feeling that you do something for a good cause and that you’re helping out in a different way."
Robin chooses to play in KLABU because he sees this as a way to give back to the community.
As the very first athlete to wear KLABU professionally, he’s been single-handedly drawing attention to what access to sports can mean for people rebuilding their lives in refugee camps. He says he “gets a lot of questions, what is this brand and what does this shirt mean?” and takes pride in telling the KLABU story of how each shirt directly contributes to building sports clubhouses in refugee camps and opening up access to sports for all.
What can rally support like nothing on earth? Sport.
This shirt has the power to change lives
Robin is a brave tennis player to play for something bigger and take a stand for a cause in the kit he wears. It helps the pro-sporting world and the many watching fans understand sport’s transformative power.
As a new brand to the tennis world, KLABU and Robin have attracted the attention of the International Tennis Federation, and our product team, factory and Robin have worked hard to make sure each shirt is on regulation, so they can be worn and seen by as many eyes as possible. The eye-catching pattern and colours help of course, but Robin says of KLABU that “people react really nicely, they think it’s a really cool idea, love the Foundation and ask more questions because they’re intrigued”. This Olympic shirt was specifically designed and coloured for Robin at the Paris 2024 Games.
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"For KLABU and of course the refugees, this is the biggest event there is in the world, so if you can wear that and give more exposure to KLABU then I think that will be amazing. Of course it helps if we do well, so you get more exposure."
It’s been our absolute pleasure to have Robin as a member of the KLABU, kitting him out for (hopeful) Olympic glory.
He’s worked his way to the Games, wants to win a medal, and believes he can. But whatever the on-court result is, we’re incredibly grateful for Robin’s personal efforts to bring KLABU to wider international attention and to help rebuild the lives of others through sport. His support and wearing of our sportswear creates this impact both at our KLABU clubhouses in refugee camps far away, and here closer to our Dutch home in Amsterdam and Ter Apel. Powering of sports in refugee camps is something anyone who wears KLABU contributes to, pro-athlete or not!
[Olympic on court photography by Andre Weening / Orange Picures, BSR Agency.]
