Watch: Towels for Wimbledon that fans spar over are all made in India

The official Wimbledon towels are the sport’s most coveted keepsake. Recently US player Jack Sock’s towel made headlines when a man was caught on camera snatching it away from a boy, after the player tossed it into the stands. The video launched a hunt for the boy, and all round outrage at the man, leading to an impostor claiming the towel .

On 7 July, 14-year-old Peter Woodville, from Philadelphia, USA, finally received his towel from Jack Sock. The bizarre towel happenings on the Wimbledon court and Jack Sock’s appeal to find the boy even inspired US open, Roland Garros, and the Australian Open to suggest a “slam sweep” of towels for the young man.

If you find out, we'd like to send him a #USOpen towel. @AustralianOpen, @rolandgarros, maybe send one of yours as well for a Slam sweep?

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) July 4, 2017

Happy to complete the towels Grand Slam ;) 🇫🇷🎾

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) July 5, 2017

Until 2012, in the towel obsessed world of Wimbledon, the organisers had towel police , to limit the number of towels given out to players. They still managed to steal away more than their allotted share of two towels.

In 2015, Washington Post   reported , “Even the sport’s biggest stars are not immune, pocketing around half of the 6,000 towels set aside for their use during the matches, and giving them away to friends and family. The towels are so popular that the tournament employed towel police to prevent thefts until 2012, when they stopped trying to prevent players from stuffing their bags full of towels.”

Players also  admitted to sneaking these off to give away to friends and family.

In the years since, the rules have been relaxed. And since 2006, the production of these towels has fallen to Indian company Welspun that bought over Christy, the official towel maker until then. The manufacturing of these towels moved to the company’s Vapi plant in Gujarat in 2010. Watch the video above to find out more.