Josh O’Connor as Patrick Zweig in Challengers (2024)
Vitals
Josh O’Connor as Patrick Zweig, professional tennis player
Stanford, California, Spring 2007 & Atlanta, Summer 2011
Film: Challengers
Release Date: April 26, 2024
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Costume Designer: Jonathan Anderson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One of the most talked-about (and memed) movies of 2024 is Challengers, directed by Luca Guadagnino who celebrates his 53rd birthday today. Challengers centers around a 13-year love triangle between three tennis players after lifelong friends Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) and Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) meet the driven star Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) during the 2006 U.S. Open.
After a sexually charged night when Tashi gleefully manipulates the two friends into kissing each other, she begins dating Patrick as a romantic reward for his defeating Art during the following day’s match. While Patrick goes pro and Tashi attends Stanford with Art, Patrick and Tashi attempt to maintain their long-distance relationship that Art complicates by suggesting to each that the other isn’t fully committed. The tension results in an argument between Patrick and Tashi, and he skips her fateful match against “Sally fucking country club from Pepperdine” where Tashi suffers a career-ending injury.
Four years later, Tashi has channeled her talent into being Art’s coach (and girlfriend) when Patrick runs into them during the 2011 Atlanta Open, reigniting old passions.
What’d He Wear?
Challengers was the first costume design screen credit for Irish designer Jonathan Anderson, founder of the JW Anderson label and creative director of Spanish luxury fashion house LOEWE. “For O’Connor’s character Patrick Zweig, Anderson said he channeled the old-money nonchalance of John F. Kennedy Jr.,” reports Samantha Conti for WWD.
This is most evident with Tashi’s “I TOLD YA” T-shirt that Patrick begins wearing after their argument in her dorm room and continues wearing when he runs into her and Art four years later. “The son of the late president was captured by paparazzi wearing a ‘I Told Ya’ shirt, itself seemingly a reference to the ‘I Told You So’ buttons marking John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inauguration,” Kalia Richardson and Sage Anderson wrote for Rolling Stone.
JFK Jr., circa 1990, in a T-shirt referencing the slogan on his late father’s inaugural buttons.
Though Challengers obviously features plenty of stylish tennis gear, the simple but iconic “I TOLD YA” T-shirt emerged as arguably the most memorable and recognizable, to the point where even Zendaya and Josh O’Connor have been photographed wearing variations of it in public while promoting the film. The shirt has grown so intrinsically connected to the Challengers universe that Anderson developed an “I TOLD YA” lineup for LOEWE’s Challengers collection, including $330 T-shirts and $690 sweatshirts in screen-inspired gray and JFK Jr.-inspired white.
Tashi is actually the first character to wear the T-shirt on screen, during the tense cafeteria lunch with Art where she accuses him of being a poor friend after he introduces the idea that Patrick isn’t fully invested in their relationship. The short-sleeved crew-neck T-shirt is made from a heather-gray cotton with each word in the black block-lettered “I TOLD YA” text printed in three lines over the chest.
Though Tashi’s T-shirt is gray rather than white, the white shorts and sneakers recall how JFK Jr. had been photographed wearing the shirt decades earlier.
After Tashi takes off the “I TOLD YA” shirt for her dorm room tryst with Patrick, he picks it up on his way out after their argument and pulls it on instead of the plain white T-shirt he had been wearing earlier. Challengers doesn’t clarify if the shirt had been Tashi’s before it was taken by Patrick or if he was just reclaiming one of his own shirts that she had been wearing, but it’s arguably his attempt at a power play to leave wearing the shirt she had started the scene in. (For what it’s worth, Justin Kuritzkes’ screenplay states only that “Patrick grabs his stuff and starts to leave.”)
Patrick may have been angry when we first see him don the shirt, but Josh O’Connor was in far better spirits when describing it to Richardson and Anderson for Rolling Stone. “It’s such a cheeky T-shirt… and I really liked wearing it because it was just a bit like, ‘Told ya!’ and funnily enough, it’s something that a lot of my friends [have] been saying for years.”
Patrick wears dark-blue denim jeans with a classic relaxed fit, though the camera angles and the untucked hem of his T-shirt conceal any identifying elements. Thirteen years later during his “date” in Tashi’s hotel lobby bar, he wears similar jeans that have the familiar Levi’s arcuate back pocket stitch; given Patrick’s brand loyalty that extends to his Nikes, it’s very possible that he wore Levi’s for this sequence as well.
And speaking of those shoes… Patrick exclusively wears Nike Killshot 2 sneakers when not on the tennis court. Nike had indeed intended the Killshot for racquet sports when it was introduced in 1979, but Tyler Chin writes for GQ that “its modern-day story really begins in 2009 [or 2012], when J.Crew reintroduced the silhouette to the selvedge-wearing masses. According to menswear lore, the big-box retailer needed a win amid declining sales, so it swapped out the original Killshot’s mesh uppers for leather, added a gum sole, managed to keep the price under $100, and stumbled onto a smash hit in the process.”
The Killshot 2 remained exclusive to J. Crew until it returned home to Nike in August 2019—the very month that the “present day” scenes are set in Challengers. Described by Nike as “courtside attitude with a modern touch,” the uppers are smooth leather framed by soft suede around the toes, heels, and lace panels. Carried over from the original design are the flat woven laces pulled through seven sets of eyelets and the distinctive leather Nike “swoosh” logo adorning each side.
Though the Killshot 2 has expanded to include a dozen colorways as of 2024, Patrick’s shoes have white uppers and navy “swoosh” logos in homage to the original Killshot configuration. The suede sections are aged and worn to present more of a light-gray than white, and the rubber gum soles are the traditional ochre. At least during the Stanford scenes set in spring 2007, Patrick wears his Killshot 2 sneakers with black socks.
The nudged stool that launched a thousand memes.
Throughout Challengers, Patrick wears the same yellow-gold dress watch on a brown exotic leather strap. The round white dial is detailed with gold non-numeric hour indices. Still yet to be definitively identified, the timepiece is presentable but likely not prestigious—unlike the gold Cartier that Tashi wears when they reconnect in Atlanta.
What to Imbibe
Nibble on your buddy’s churro.
According to IMDB, Patrick taking a bite of the churro before pointing it back to Art for a bite was an unscripted ad-lib suggested by Josh O’Connor to take advantage of the fact that he was hungry and had never eaten a churro.
How to Get the Look
Josh O’Connor as Patrick Zweig in Challengers (2024)
Whether he stole the shirt from Tashi or she had been borrowing it from him, Patrick Zweig elevates a simple T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers into a memorably cheeky character-defining look rooted in sports history and political heritage.
- Heather-gray cotton “I TOLD YA”-printed crew-neck short-sleeved T-shirt
- Dark-blue denim Levi’s relaxed-fit jeans
- Nike Killshot 2 tennis shoes with white leather-and-suede uppers, navy leather “swoosh” logos, and rubber gum soles
- Black socks
- Gold dress watch with round white dial on brown exotic leather strap
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
You can also read more about the Challengers costume design from these sources:
- Cultured — “In ‘Challengers,’ Jonathan Anderson’s Costume Design Sexes Up the Tennis Set”
- GQ — “Can Challengers Make the Nike Killshot Cool Again?” by Tyler Chin
- GQ — “Why Is Everyone Obsessed with Josh O’Connor’s Challengers Outfits?” by Samuel Hine
- Haloscope — “Was Jonathan Anderson’s Costume Design in Challengers Just a Drop Shot? ” by Sophia Scorziello
- High Snobiety —”LOEWE’s JW Anderson Made ‘Challengers’ 2024’s Best-Dressed Movie” by Jake Silbert
- Hypebae — “Jonathan Anderson Turns Up the Heat with Costume Designs for Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Challengers'”
- Marie Claire (via Yahoo!) — “Patrick Zweig’s Vintage Sneakers Are My Second Favorite Thing About ‘Challengers'” by Julia Marzovilla
- Radio Monash — “Film and Fashion – Challengers” by Punya Heinonen
- Refinery29 — “From Chanel To Loewe: The Fashion In Challengers Goes Beyond Tenniscore” by Irina Grechko
- Rolling Stone — What’s the Story Behind the ‘I Told Ya’ T-Shirt in ‘Challengers’?” by Kalia Richardson & Sage Anderson
- W Magazine — “Jonathan Anderson & Luca Guadagnino Talk Challengers Costumes, Zendaya’s Impact & Their Next Film, Queer” by William Middleton
- WWD — “Jonathan Anderson Channeled JFK Jr.’s Nonchalance Into Costumes for Luca Guadagnino’s Latest Film ‘Challengers’” by Samantha Conti
The Quote
I’m not some fucking lapdog who’s gonna sit around and let you punish me.
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