The Essentials With Sloane Stephens: Safaris, Bingo Nights and a Self-Care Mindset

On the court, Sloane Stephens is known for keeping calm under pressure, a quality that has helped her to win multiple titles during her 15-plus years as a professional tennis player. But that doesn’t mean the 2017 U.S. Open champion is immune to breaking a sweat—she just has her own deodorant to help her out. “I had tried out a bunch of deodorants over the years that I just didn’t love, so I was always on a mission to find something better,” Stephens tells Observer of what sparked the first product launch behind her wellness brand, Doc & Glo. But the inspiration for the line really goes back to her childhood, when she learned early on to make self-care an essential part of her recovery routine.

“My grandparents were so forward with wellness, and my mom is a psychologist, so throughout my life, it was always about taking care of yourself—your physical health, your mental health,” she says, sharing that the brand’s name is a tribute to her grandparents (her grandfather, an OB-GYN affectionately dubbed “Doc,” and her grandmother, Gloria, who went by the nickname, “Glo”). During the pandemic, Stephens began work on Doc & Glo, starting with her aluminum-free, roll-on deodorant. “I wear a ton of fragrance, but I don’t want to be wearing a peaches and cream deodorant and my Baccarat, so I wanted something fragrance-free,” she says of one nonnegotiable. Perhaps even more important to the athlete was a deodorant that’s tough against odor, while still being gentle on the skin. “I really put it to the test; I had the opportunity to play tennis, and sweat and work out three times a day with this deodorant.”

A year after the brand’s official launch, Stephens is expanding into haircare, with a shampoo, conditioner and hair oil, as well as a supplement that brought a unique set of challenges. “ I was always weird about my hair in terms of wondering if my hair is shedding or maybe I need to not wear my ponytails as tight,” she says of her own hair concerns. “Everything I create is kind of around my life as an athlete, and what I can and can’t put into my body, but we all want to be more mindful. We all lack in certain vitamins, we all lack in certain nutrition, so this supplement has things that we know we should be taking, like vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, folic acid, saw palmetto, collagen [and] omega-3s.”

Giving back has proven to be important to Stephens, who was recently honored with the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award at the ESPYS in recognition of the work she’s done through her Sloane Stephens Foundation. Established in 2013 with the goal of introducing tennis to children in underserved communities, the foundation has expanded its offerings to include both athletic and educational opportunities to around 15,000 children in Compton, California. “We have tennis, obviously, but we also do soccer, we just launched our swim program this summer, we have an art program, we have after-school tutoring and reading labs,” Stephens explains, adding that the foundation will be opening a similar program in Miami Gardens, Florida, later this year. “We had our first kid—Mia, who started with us in elementary school—go to college on a full scholarship; that’s what success looks like for us,” she says of what she finds most rewarding. “College is cool, playing tennis in college is amazing, getting a free education is incredible—all of those things really make a difference in these young people’s lives.”

Currently recovering from a foot injury, Stephens plans to make her official return to the tennis court during the Guadalajara Open in September. “That will be my first tournament back, then I’ll play a few tournaments at the end of the year, and a full season next year,” she explains. In the meantime, she’s taking on a new role with ESPN as a commentator for the U.S. Open. Before her own return to the competition, Sloane Stephens celebrated Doc & Glo’s latest launches (and the start of the U.S. Open) by sharing her current essentials with Observer—from the sunscreen she relies on to keep her skin protected on the court to the self-care activities that make up her recovery routine.