lacoste

Rene Lacoste was born in France on the 2nd July 1904.

By 1926 he had won the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S Open Title at Forest Hills. However his legendary status really began in 1927 when he and his teammates, together known as the “The Musketeers”, won the Davis Cup from the Americans for the first time. They went on to win the Davis Cup again the next year in 1928, and by 1930, Rene had won another 2 French Opens and further U.S Open.

The Lacoste emblem of the Alligator was a result of Rene’s nickname which was given to him by the American Press. The story is that the Captain of the French Davis Cup promised to buy him a suitcase made from alligator skin if he won an important match for their team.

Lacoste himself felt the alligator was a good symbol of the way he played tennis – tenacious and never letting go of his prey.

In 1933 with Andre Gillier (owner of France’s largest knitwear manufacturer) Lacoste set-up a company to produce the tennis shirt Lacoste had designed.
They also produced several golf, tennis and sailing shirts at the same time. Rene Lacoste’s wife was actually a British championsip winning ladies golfer.

This was the first time that a brand was shown on the outside of an article of clothing – an idea which has since become somewhat successful!
The first Lacoste shirt was white, shorter than the other shirts of time, with a ribbed collar and short sleeves. It was made of a knitted fabric called “Jersey petit pique”. Short-coded the “1212”.

Development of the shirts continued throughout the 1930’s, and although the company’s activities were interrupted during the war, production started again in 1946. By 1960, Lacoste shirts were being exported to Italy and the US, with the collections growing to include different colours and styles, as well as shorts and their first children’s collection .

Not content with clothes, Rene Lacoste invented the first steel tennis racket in 1963 and revolutionised tennis equipment. It was distributed by Wilson, and was used to win 46 Grand Slam tournament titles between 1966 and 1978.

Over the next few years, Lacoste’s range of products grew even further, developing products ranging from Eau de Toilette and Sunglasses to Lacoste Pour Homme toiletries and by 1990, Lacoste had signed manufacturing and distribution licences in the US, Japan, Brazil, Australia, South Korea, Argentina, Thailand, Mexico and Turkey.

Lacoste’s range of shoes and trainers grew to include new lines of tennis shoes, deck shoes, walking shoes and leisure shoes.
Lacoste launched their line of watches in 1994 (produced by Swiss company Roventa-Henex), and over the next few years would open Lacoste boutiques in Palm Beach, Bal Harbour and Moscow in Russia.

The Lacoste brand is truly Worldwide and an enormously powerful brand in many different product areas.

The Lacoste company owns the “Lacoste” brand and coordinates and controls the different licences to each partner company: Devanlay for clothing, Pentland for footwear, Procter & Gamble for fragrances, Samsonite for leather goods, Charmant for flasses, Movado for watches, Zucchi for home textiles and Collaert for belts.

Lacoste footwear and trainers collections demonstrate both a fashion and retro influence.

The classic tennis style shoes are always the Lacoste Carnaby and the Camden, and each year’s variations are eagerly awaited.

The fashion styles are always in great demand and show strong and distinctive cutting edge design elements, and this freshness together with the superb build quality keeps Lacoste trainers at the forefront of casual fashion footwear.