Local tournament partners with startup to keep strings out of landfills
The Winston-Salem Open is rolling out a novel recycling program this year that will transform used tennis strings from professional players and fans into high-performance apparel. The tournament announced a partnership with LET, a Boston University-founded startup that collects polyester strings and converts them into virgin-quality material for clothing.
LET—formerly known as Orobor—will gather strings throughout tournament week, including material from top competitors such as defending champion Márton Fucsovics and top-20 player Luciano Darderi, according to the Winston-Salem Open. Fans can take part directly: the first 500 people who donate used strings on opening day will receive complimentary admission to the event.
“We’re always looking for meaningful ways to enhance the tournament and benefit the local community,” said Jeff Ryan, Winston-Salem Open tournament director. “The partnership with LET helps us keep used strings out of our local landfills while giving that material a second life as apparel.”
The initiative underlines a broader push to reduce waste associated with professional sports. LET says it requires roughly 15 rackets’ worth of strings to produce a single high-performance shirt and that, across its network, it has diverted nearly 11,000 pounds of used tennis strings from landfills to date. The startup already works with more than 200 collection partners, including facilities, tournaments and teams.
- Players contributing strings include internationally ranked competitors who appear at the Winston-Salem Open.
- Fans can donate used strings and potentially receive free admission on the tournament’s opening day.
- Collected material will be processed into apparel and offered for sale at the tournament next year.
This is the first time, the tournament said, that a professional tennis event will formally partner with a string-recycling startup in this way. The recycled apparel produced from the collected strings will be sold at next year’s tournament, giving the program both an environmental and commercial angle.
Local impact and the optics of sustainability
For Winston-Salem, the program presents a modest but tangible sustainability action tied to a major regional event. The Winston-Salem Open draws national attention and local economic activity—bringing visitors, players and media to the city—and the recycling partnership adds a visible environmental dimension to that surge.
Tournament director Ryan framed the effort as a simple step with meaningful ramifications, saying it can encourage more sustainability work within tennis. The move mirrors larger trends in professional sports where recycled materials increasingly appear in uniforms and fan merchandise; organizers say the visibility of such programs can help normalize recycling in arenas often associated with single-use textiles and waste.
Organizers have emphasized that the program is straightforward: collect polyester strings, transport them to LET’s partner recycling facilities, convert them into virgin-quality material and craft finished garments. The tournament’s statement did not disclose pricing for the apparel to be sold at next year’s event, nor did it provide a target for the quantity of garments expected to result from this year’s collections.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Fans receiving complimentary admission for donating strings | 500 |
| Rackets of strings needed for one shirt | 15 |
| Pounds diverted by LET to date | 11,000 |
For residents, the program is a low-friction way to participate in waste reduction while attending an established local event. Collection points at the tournament week create a physical locus for a community experiment: can small-scale recycling tied to spectator behavior become a steady source of raw material for circular-fashion products?
The Winston-Salem Open’s partnership with LET doesn't claim to solve the broader problem of textile waste, but it does provide a measurable example of reuse within a defined supply chain. If successful locally, the model could offer a template for other tournaments and local sporting events looking to reduce landfill contributions while engaging fans in sustainability efforts.
As the tournament proceeds, local attendees and volunteers will be the ones to test whether tennis-string recycling can scale from novelty to steady practice. For now, Winston-Salem can claim a first-of-its-kind experiment in American pro tennis—and a chance for fans to turn broken strings into something you can wear next season.
