Simon Solbas: The Athlete-Turned-Innovator Redefining the Future of Fashion Tech

From world-ranked tennis courts to building Figr, the digital engine transforming how humans experience clothing online.

At just 26 years old, Simon Solbas is shaping the next frontier of fashion as boldly as he once dominated global tennis courts. Today, he is the founder and creative force behind Figr, a groundbreaking platform that functions as the operating system for the future of digital apparel — transforming how brands design, display, and deliver clothing in the online world.

But long before he stepped into rooms with engineers, founders, and fashion visionaries, Simon was mastering a different kind of arena.

From Centre Courts to Startup War Rooms

For most of his life, Simon’s identity was defined by one pursuit: becoming one of the best tennis players in the world.

He picked up a racket at just four years old. By his teenage years, he was competing among the top junior players globally, living a life governed by discipline, competition, and relentless self-improvement. Tennis gave him structure. It gave him purpose. It gave him an arena where clarity came from movement, sweat, timing, and grit.

But life rarely follows the lines we draw for it.

A difficult period in his career — a stretch of months filled with doubt, fatigue, and emotional turbulence — forced Simon to confront the unthinkable: stepping away from the sport he’d built his entire life around.

“Walking away felt like losing part of myself,” he recalls. “Tennis had been my purpose for sixteen years. Without it, I didn’t know who I was.”

He chose the only direction that seemed stable — the classroom — and earned a degree in economics. At 22, however, he found himself armed with education but lacking a path that ignited him.

A New Arena, A New Passion

Everything changed when he met a pair of friends building a startup.

The moment he stepped into the high-speed, high-pressure world of entrepreneurship, something inside him reawakened. The adrenaline. The urgency. The decisions that felt like match points. The camaraderie. The need to perform under pressure.

It mirrored tennis in the ways that mattered most — but with the limitless potential of creation.

“I felt alive again,” Simon says. “Startups brought back the fire I thought I had lost.”

What followed was a whirlwind: Simon helped build several ventures that would eventually be acquired, absorbing everything — product, performance, customer psychology, creative execution, and the art of scaling something from zero.

The Big Question That Sparked a Movement

During these years, one question kept resurfacing:

“Why doesn’t online shopping feel as real, intuitive, or human as buying in-store?”

That curiosity became an obsession.
And obsession became Figr.

Founded with the vision to merge craftsmanship with code, Figr reimagines how clothing can be experienced digitally — rendering garments as living, dynamic objects instead of flat images. Under Simon’s leadership, Figr is helping global fashion brands craft digital experiences that feel tactile, emotional, and deeply human.

This isn’t just technology.
It’s storytelling.
It’s identity.
It’s the future of how we connect with clothing.

The Athlete’s Mindset Behind a Founder’s Vision

Simon’s transformation from elite athlete to entrepreneur was not accidental — it was built on the same principles that shaped his life on the court:

• Precision — understanding that every detail counts
• Endurance — pushing through fatigue, uncertainty, and slow progress
• Timing — knowing when to attack, adapt, or pivot
• Mental resilience — the ability to stay grounded when the stakes rise
• Competitive instinct — the drive to never settle for “good enough”

The battles he fought alone on the tennis court prepared him for the equally intense, often unpredictable battles of startup life.

“Tennis taught me how to lose, how to recover, and how to keep showing up,” Simon says. “Entrepreneurship demands the same courage — just in a different form.”

Looking Ahead — Where Vision Meets Momentum

To understand Simon Solbas is to understand a rare blend of artistry and discipline. He moves through the entrepreneurial world with the precision of an athlete, the curiosity of a creator, and the endurance of someone who has spent a lifetime fighting for greatness.

With Figr, he is not just building a product.
He is building a movement — one that is reshaping how the world sees, experiences, and connects with fashion online.

And at 26, he is only getting started.