Lacoste History: How Rene Lacoste Turned Tennis Innovation Into a Global Brand

Lacoste’s history begins before Lacoste existed. In 1923, tennis player Rene Lacoste acquired the nickname “the Crocodile” after a Boston match story involving a promised crocodile-skin suitcase. Ten years later, he and knitwear manufacturer Andre Gillier founded the company around a lighter, short-sleeved tennis shirt designed to give players more freedom of movement. The deeper…