There is only one contender for Breakthrough Star of The Championships 2025. She performed magnificently on both Centre and No.1 Court.

She’s had prominent airtime sitting alongside the BBC’s Today at Wimbledon panel; her charisma has been hailed by Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff on social media. And she has a very special relationship with Carlos Alcaraz.

We’re talking about Pip the Strawberry. She’s technically a plush toy, just eight inches in height, with a green felt hull for a hat and a Wimbledon badge on her left foot, but her inspiring back story has taken her to the top of the rankings in the Wimbledon Shop.

Pip’s path begins as a single berry on a row of plants growing on a local farm in Kent (mirroring the provenance of the The Championships' famous strawberries), but once inside the Grounds, she gets left on the shelf… until the reigning champion picks her up and squeezes her tight to his chest like his beloved Wimbledon trophy. Cue, oohs and aahs all round.

Sad to report, she’s out of The Championships – as in a sold-out item – but still a winner. Watch this space for Pip 2.0.

She might be in a different guise, or return with equally appealing friends, or reappear as a giant among her peers in the form of a novelty five-foot Pip. Truly, there are no limits on how far she can go at Wimbledon.

Dan Ashmore, head of retail, merchandise and licensing at the All England Club, is already planning Pip’s comeback. He otherwise reports some incredible statistics that reflect this year’s Fortnight so far.

“For example, 556,000 items have been sold onsite since the start of the Qualifying tournaments. Of those, 88,000 are baseball caps and 86,000 of those have flown out of the shops since the start of the main draw,” he says.

Headgear is a big story, and those figures don’t even include Panama or raffia hats. As ever, weather dictates the form for runners and riders.

During last year’s rain-affected Championships, the Wimbledon Shop sold a record-breaking number of umbrellas and items of warm apparel, such as sweatshirts, simply because visitors needed to keep warm and dry.

“This year, caps are selling well – out of necessity,” Dan says.

“Everyone thinks rain is good for the Shop,” he continues. “Lots of people come in to shelter when rain stops play on the outside courts but it’s when the sun’s out and people are smiling that they tend to want to buy tangible things that say ‘I was there’.”

Retail planning is a year-round project in terms of product development and review, with important decisions to be made on design, trend and colour, and a playful show of motifs and phrases unique to Wimbledon.

Baby bibs with ‘Quiet please’. Tennis ball-shaped mugs. Teddy bears wearing ‘Game. Set. Match.’ sweaters. Orders are placed before Christmas for the following year’s Championships, with some core items guaranteed to be a winner.

The classic Wimbledon Walking Umbrella in purple and green club colours and gold logos, for example, is excellent protection in a downpour and its expansive canopy is equally useful for extra sun coverage with a UV quality of UPF30+.

The legendary must-have status of the Championships Towel needs no trumpeting.

Recent figures reveal nearly 12,000 of the Classic Championships Cotton Bath Towels with heritage stripes have sold, with the seasonal version in aqua and sky blue colours hot on its heels.

Items with strawberry motifs are hungrily consumed.

Strawberries adorn hats, sweatshirts, water bottles, mugs, tea towels, keyrings, baby comforters and bibs, you name it.

Another of this year’s top sellers is a strawberry Christmas tree decoration, part of a range of felt hanging ornaments that includes tennis balls and rackets, alongside fine bone china baubles emblazoned with “Please keep off the grass” and images of trophies wreathed in holly.

Christmas in July? Absolutely, and you can stock up on printed linen Christmas stocking and present sacks too.

This is an innovation for 2025. On a benchmarking research trip last year, Ashmore and his team noticed one standout detail in other top-class London visitor attractions, such as the national museums: “They all have baubles.”

Further research revealed that a lot of global tourists like to buy a Christmas bauble on their travels, if not indulge in some serious seasonal shopping.

A visit to Wimbledon, in ceaseless sunshine, and great retail therapy? Some would say all their Christmases have come at once.

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