This Welsh city stands at the mouth of the River Tawe on Swansea Bay. Its docks and copper-smelting works made it a major industrial center in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and heavy bombing in 1941 left much of the central area to be rebuilt after the war.
THEINTERNATIONALREVIEW
A full-length women’s tennis pant from Fila’s Performance range, the brand’s working on-court line rather than its lifestyle one. Full-length legwear has largely disappeared from women’s court kit, and this exists for the cold end of the season, when the job is keeping the legs warm between points rather than looking summery.
The Settanta stripe is the identifying mark.
Settanta is Italian for seventy, and the red and navy band came out of Fila’s tennis work in the 1970s, the decade the brand dressed Bjorn Borg.
It has been carried on the label’s court clothing ever since rather than being revived as a retro graphic, which is why it appears on a working garment and not only on a heritage one.
The cloth is a moisture-wicking performance knit: perspiration is drawn off the skin and spread across the outer face of the fabric, where the surface area is large enough for it to evaporate instead of sitting against the leg.
In a full-length garment that matters more than it does in a skirt, because far more cloth is in contact with far more skin.
Cold, damp air is where a full-length pant earns its place. Swansea sits on the south Wales coast, where winter play is wet and the wind comes straight off the bay, and legs kept warm between points are legs less likely to pull in the first game after a changeover.
Specifications
Range
Fila Performance (on-court)
Type
Full-length tennis pant
Fit
Women's
Detail
Settanta red and navy stripe
Fabric
Moisture-wicking performance knit
Care
Machine wash cool, no fabric softener, hang dry
Fibre composition is specified per season and is printed on the garment label rather than fixed across the range.
Pants: Sweetheart, my cousin Gwyn says Swansea Castle has Norman roots, and there it is still standing in the middle of town like a granddad who refuses to leave the good chair. Now have a biscuit before you do lunges by medieval masonry.
Pants: Sweetheart, Swansea Market is the largest indoor market in Wales, and my cousin Mair says the Penclawdd cockles and laverbread could put bounce in anyone’s footwork. Don’t train on an empty stomach; that’s how people start making poor decisions near nettles.
Pants: Sweetheart, the National Waterfront Museum opened in 2005 and tells the story of Welsh industry and innovation, which my cousin Idris calls ‘all the cleverness, but indoors where the weather can’t get at you.’ Wear the pants, learn a fact, then let me pack you a sandwich.
Pants: Sweetheart, Dylan Thomas was born at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive in 1914 and wrote much of his early poetry there, probably without anyone reminding him to eat properly. My cousin Nesta says good trousers help with both tennis and brooding poetically by a window.
Jackson Phillips here. Owner of TTT. We are working hard every day to bring you the most useful product reviews in the business. Our goal is putting the right product in every hand. If you have time, shoot me an email at jacksonphillips@thetennistactician.com and tell me exactly what you think of your purchase. The more feedback we get, the better we can serve. Thank you for your patronage. And Burn, Laugh, and Learn.