Maria Sharapova Discusses Sugarpova and her brand with WSJ's Lee Hawkins

Maria Sharapova, the champion tennis star, is setting just as many records in the business world as she is on the court. I sat down with her at an event in New York where she promoted her Sugarpova candy line. Welcome Maria. Thank you very much. Is it Sugarpova? No. It's not? It's not. It's Sharapova. That's the name of your candy line? Sugarpova is the candy. Although now I type in my last name and it autocorrects to Sugarpova, so I gotta check that one out. So you had some success with that. I had, a little bit. And there were some rumblings that you were going to change your name for the U.S. Open to do that, but you decided against that? I did decide. I considered it for quite a while. I wanted to do something fun and different. I mean, that's what the whole candy line was all about, was doing something unexpected and different. And then the idea came about of, because everyone was starting to say, oh, Maria Sugarpova, the name kind of came about, it became fun, and everyone was laughing about it. And I thought that could be kind of interesting. But I just realized it's very difficult to change last name. Oh, is it? Okay. So there's a long process. There's a long process. But you accomplished your goal. I don't have a lot of time for it, so. Okay, but you accomplished your goal, which was to raise some awareness for your brand. There was. I think, yeah, there's definitely a lot of awareness. And in the last year, I feel like the awareness of Sugarpova brand has grown tremendously. We're available in so many different countries. We're now available online, where anyone from around the world can purchase it, and it can be delivered to their home. It doesn't matter where they live, at great prices. So it's been such a unique process to see grow and evolve. And yeah, and here we are a year later, still at Henry Bendel's, expanding our collection as well. And you have so many other products, but it's tennis that has brought you here. Absolutely. And you've kept that as your core. Absolutely. Have you ever felt like you could expand too much and take your focus off tennis? I think I've done a really good job in my career of balancing my career and my professionalism on the court and doing what I have to do there. And then when you get off it, expanding into other things, keeping your mind creative, working. You know, I never had a typical education, so I feel like I learned through so many things, whether it's business or advertising, through maybe educational things that I would have learned in school or internships I could have taken. I've actually learned through working with brands and being in meetings and in rooms with people that are extremely talented in their departments and knowledgeable at what they do. And that's part of the reason I wanted to start something on my own, because I felt like I did have that experience from learning from them. How long do you think you'll play on the circuit? Time will tell. You know, time will tell, the body will tell. I certainly didn't think when I was 16-17 years old I'd be 26 and still playing, but here I am and I still feel like I have quite a bit to go. Were you surprised by Bartoli's recent decision to retire? You know, the sport is very demanding. I think a lot of the work that we put in before we go on to center court, before the cameras roll, before anything happens, is never really seen in that work and that daily effort. And it's a challenging sport, so I'm not surprised. I think she ended on an incredible note of winning Wimbledon, such a huge accomplishment, so good for her. You know, there's so many, at her age especially, there's so many things in life as a woman that you want to, you know, do and try and family and kids and so I'm not. I talk to a lot of athletes and many of them make the mistake of not really getting into endorsements and business or trying to get into it until after they've left, which makes it more difficult. When you retire, do you feel that you'll be positioned to go into business? Is that where you expect to go? I feel like it's always been part of my plan. I've never, I've always, the idea of not, I've played tennis since I was four years old, but so the idea of not playing tennis and not having anything to do at all actually scares me and I think it has been, especially when I went through my injury. I didn't play for nine months, so the thought of, oh what if I never make it back, it always kept me thinking about what do I really want to do, what do I want to achieve. What do you want to do? I want to be in business. I love creating things that, you know, that you're inspired by. You see, you see an image, you see a product, something strikes in your mind, you see it going in different directions, you sketch it, you produce it, you go through samples, you see it on a shelf and that's something that it's been with Candy. Then you go through the reports and the trends and the business side, you know, it's not just, there's so many things that evolve around one little product and you learn in the candy business, I mean every single, you know, distributor has different rights, every different country requires different things, different ingredients, different labels, it just, the list keeps going on and on. And to talk, to hear you talk, you can tell that you're very well versed on the business side, but there are people who say that Serena Williams, for instance, has won more titles but doesn't have as many endorsements. Why is that? I think every player on the tour has their certain strengths and what they do and what they've accomplished. I think Serena has done an incredible job on the court. Her tennis has spoken, you know, for itself in the last however many years that she's competed. The amount of grand slams that she's been able to win, especially at her age now, still competing at the highest level and maybe her best level yet, speaks a lot for what she's accomplished. So at the end of the day, it is tennis that's brought us all these other things, but I think it's also how you use it and how you want to use it. If you, not many people, not many players have the interest to do other things, which is okay because if we're good enough at what we do, if we're successful, if we make the right amount of money, some people don't have to. We have the luxury not to. I think it's a choice. Is that most successful in endorsements, in business, because the other athletes have chosen not to do it or because you've got a talent in that area? I never like to think that I'm successful because then you don't want to go for more. I've achieved a lot in my career, but to sit here and say that I'm the best at this or I'm a great tennis player, I don't like to think like that because it puts you in a dead spot. I want to have bigger goals. I want to be greater and even if I don't reach it, I still want to get up there. Of course, we are in America and money is a proxy for success. You were listed by Forbes Magazine as the highest paid female athlete in the world, so you are the best in that area. Right now, there's not an athlete that really compares to you, so what is it do you think that you brought that has helped you do that? I've never actually seen statistics on other athletes' bank accounts, so I don't know who we're comparing this to, but I think you have to love what you do. You have to have a plan. You have to have good people around you. It's teamwork. I have a very close-knit of people that I've had for many years as part of my team and manager and a group that every day wakes up and thinks how to build and work and inspire from each other and keep it fresh and fun. Now, you have a tennis racket bag collection that you've done with head. That's one of the things you've done. You're here today for the candy, right? Right, for Sugarpova. We've partnered with Henry Bendell's on accessories. I mean, Henry Bendell's over the years has been known to produce some of the best accessories, whether it's hair pieces or earrings and necklaces, so that was a fun collaboration because these are actual pieces that I, you know, I like to do things that, I mean, selfishly, that I wear, especially on court, so I wear little bobby pins and earrings, and I like to accessorize my on-court looks. It makes it fun, and people look at that, and so that was one of the reasons we did this collaboration together. You also have a design venture with Cole Haan, I understand. Yeah, I designed for Cole Haan for about six years, many seasons. That was probably one of the riskiest things I've done in terms of the fashion world because, in the beginning, my name was not very well known, and to kind of, to go into a fashion venture from a tennis player's career, especially with a big name brand like that, so widely popular in the United States, was, you know, it was a risky decision, but I worked really hard at it. I gave a lot of effort into, and I learned a lot. I mean, you have to, you have to be open to learning, to understanding, to making sure that you understand, you know, the people's direction as well, that it's not just a single-minded move. Have you had products or been approached by companies that have made you say, you know what, I don't think that's right for me? I have, I have. What kinds of things do you look for in companies before you align? I look for companies that have similar values, that have, that understand my career, that understand the time limit that I have in order for the partnership to work, you know, the core of the brands are extremely important to me. The vision, where you see, where you see something, not just today, but in five, ten years from now, for me it's about long-term partnerships than, than just a year or six months. Would you take a chance on a small, like, there are a lot of small companies out there that have good products, but don't have the money to afford a brand like you. Right. Would you ever take stock, or do you take stock in companies? I have, I have a financial manager who I work with very closely on, on working on those different things, but I will say that I didn't go, you know, into Sugarpova head-on with, with an unlimited budget, that's for sure. We certainly, you know, we, we set the line at a certain, you know, at a certain extent. It was very important to, to not go overboard, to understand what was important. It was about quality, it was about being premium. It took two years to create with a certain budget. Our marketing budget was not huge, but we had my name behind it, which I think drove a lot of the sales and the popularity around the world. I read that when you had your shoulder injury, you made a concerted effort to say, you know what, I'm going to focus on my brand. I did. What were the things that you did to focus, like, to, to get, to start meeting with your sponsors and things? Well, I think in that period of time, it was about, for me, it was the idea that I could maybe one day no longer be able to play tennis, so it's kind of like, what, you know, what do you want to do? Where do you see yourself? How do you see yourself evolving as a person? I mean, I personally never had a proper education, so no matter how much money I made on the tennis court, I didn't, I didn't want that to stop. I didn't want to, my thinking to stop. When you're on the court, it's like, not only is it physical, and it's, you're putting in so much physical work, but so much of it is mental, and that's, that's the challenge that I've had since I was a four-year-old girl, is the, the mental side of, of the game, and, and I wanted to find challenges in other, in other different areas. In business, I thought would, was one of them, because I've always been interested in seeing how things come alive, and how they do, and what works, and what doesn't. You've mentioned that a few times, that you haven't had a formal education. Does that bother you ever? It didn't bother me, because I don't know what the other side would look like, but I've always, my mother stressed it to me numerous times. Okay. She was very, I mean, I always studied online. Have you thought of going back at some point? Will you go back? I think, may, I would love to. I don't know if I'd actually have the proper time to, but I, I would love to experience it. There's so many things that, you know, I sit here, and I say I want to experience, and then I just keep playing tennis, because at the end of the day, that's what I love. You've learned some toughness. I don't know if you got that just on the court, if you got part of it from business, but who are your mentors as a businesswoman? I have a very small group of people around me that I've had for many years. My mom, and my dad, and my manager, Max, who's managed me since I was 11 years old. You know, a few more people, and, and that's it, a financial manager. I worked with, with the same people for many, many years. I think that's, people that know you the best, that understand you and your vision, are the ones that, you can't do things on your own. You know, you need, there might be a name behind it, but it's a team effort to bring it up, and I've always, I've always believed in it. You can't be selfish in this business. You have to, you have to be able to take information in, in order to produce something big. To be a global brand, or do you feel that you're global enough, are there parts of the world that you would like to permeate with your brand that you don't feel you've penetrated yet? There are different, I mean, there are different markets, which, you know, you, we've seen our product coming into so many different countries. You know, I personally, I didn't know how gummies would do in Russia, because when I left Russia at the age of seven, I didn't know of gummy candy. I never seen gummy candy. When I came to the United States, I was amazed. I went to movie theater, I was, you know, went to these stores, and you see these boxes with gummy filled candy. I thought it was genius. I'd never seen something like that, and then I went back to, to Russia, and I was looking for it, and I could never find it. So, I, I was a little bit uncertain how it would do in the Russian market, but Russia has become our biggest market since we launched it. So, that's been a surprise, but Asia is something that I really, you know, where I want to do well in. You know, it would require a lot of, a lot of time, and maybe a smaller packaging for the Japanese, Japanese people. They like everything a little bit smaller. So, it's about making those adjustments. That'll do it. What a performance. That was very special, as was the resistance and the fight that was shown by Venus Williams, but she was outplayed. That's one of the heaviest defeats meted out for Venus Williams in Grand Slam tennis. Sharapova is back to her very, very best. You've won all the titles. I mean, you've done the Grand Slams, and the U.S. Open, and all of that. When you look at now, going ahead, is it an Olympic gold that you would want, or as a tennis player, what more is there to do? That'd be special. Yeah, an Olympic gold would be special, but... Did I hit the nail on the head, or not? Yeah, you did, but I, I think you, I still go into every Grand Slam, and I still, you know, inside of me, deep down, I have to feel like I still haven't won it, because you still have to have that hunger when you go out on the court, because if you go out on the court, and you feel like, I've done this, I've done that, I do it every single day, that's not fun. You have to challenge yourself, and I, I go out there, and I, you have to work just as hard, if not harder. I mean, the tennis has become much more physical, much more mental than it's ever been, and you have to keep striving for, for being better. Have you squashed your beef with Serena? We haven't spoken too much about it, but we, we did. We left a lot of what had happened in London. Why did, I just, I don't want to talk too much about it, because... We shouldn't. But, but why didn't you back down? I didn't? Yeah, I mean... I'm a strong girl. You were tough, you came out with some... I'm a strong girl. Some do-the-world words yourself. I've always been tough. I've been tough professionally. You know, it's, it's really where, where you have to be tough, is in business, and professionally, when you're out on the court. It's won me, it's won me a lot in life. You know, I'm not the strongest girl, I'm not the fastest girl on the court, but I've been extremely tough, and it's brought me, you know, many titles, and many victories, and many smiles, so. All right, well, you keep going. You're doing something right. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it, Maria Sharapova. Yes, that's right. I appreciate it. Good luck with Sugarcova. Thank you. And with Maria Sharapova, I'm Lee Hawkins. See you next time. I'd love to sit here and say, you know, I want to win the next, I want to win 10 majors when my career is finished, and I want to do this, but I, I never have been one to put a number on it. I just want to play, and play well, and you know, if I play well, I know that I'll have chances to win many golf tournaments. Do you see yourself becoming a billionaire one day? I don't know. I really don't know. I really can't say, but right now, I'm on a good pace.