He Jokingly Branded His Shirt, Then Turned It Into A Billion Dollar Brand!

it's all fun and jokes until you make millions of dollars from it this is the story of legendary tennis player Renee Lacoste who founded the luxury brand Lacoste he went from jokingly branding his shirt with a crocodile to making millions of dollars selling clothing with crocodiles on it but how did the crocodile joke start and how did he turn the cost into a multi-billion dollar brand Renee Lacoste was born on the 2nd of July 1904 in Paris France his parents Jean Marie Magdalene larolay and jean-ju Lacoste were upperclassmen in society so Renee could do whatever he wanted however he took an interest in tennis when he was 15 years old Renee enjoyed playing tennis so much that he wanted to make a career out of it his father Jean Zhu Lacoste was not intrigued with the possibility of a tennis career for his son because Renee was not as skilled as the top tennis players after seeing his son's passion for tennis jean-ju Lacoste eventually gave Renee his Blessing on the condition that he become a world champion in five years this was an enormous challenge but Renee wanted to prove himself to his father so he began intense training for three years in 1922 Renee entered his first tennis competition which was the Wimbledon Championship Grand Slam Tournament but unfortunately he lost in the first round he was disturbed about these results because of the pressure from his father to succeed the next year he entered his first competition in the United States things were a little better this time as he made it to the fourth round but was narrowly defeated by Cecil Campbell despite that he continued his training diligently slowly surprising his limits and by 1923 he was selected to play in France for the Davis Cup team Renee played alongside jean-varotra Jacques bronon and Enrico Shea together the men were so formidable that tennis fans nicknamed them the Four Musketeers Renee reached his first major Final in 1925 at Wimbledon but lost to a fellow musketeer John barotra his defeat made him train Eva even harder not forgetting his promise to his father later that year Renee won the French championship title and by the next Wimbledon tournament he had a rematch with John barotra at the finals this time he emerged as a champion Renee was finally worthy to play tennis in the eyes of his father but he lost his French championship title the following year to Enrico Shay after his defeat Renee did not compete in Wimbledon that year he spent his time training and getting better at tennis in September 1926 he competed in the U. S national championship and his last match was once again against jean-brotra he won the championship match against Jean and was ranked number one tennis player for 1926 by The Daily Telegraph Renee is also attributed with inventing the tennis ball machine and he has had more phenomenal conquests in his tennis career but how did any of these lead to the creation of the Lacoste brand through his dedication to the sport Renee developed a unique style of playing tennis that did not go unnoticed he often played around the back of the court and slithered around the court while playing in 1926 the French Davis Cup team reached the world group final and they lost to the U. S team however something phenomenal happened in the last tournament that intrigued American journalists the American team had Bill Tilden as their best player he was well known for having an undefeated winning streak in tennis championships Bill tilden's opponent for the World Cup final was Renee and every tennis Enthusiast in the world was on the edge of their seat to the surprise of everyone Renee pulled off an upset to triumph over bill by winning the four-set game against him the American journalists present at the game noticed Renee's phenomenal style of playing and nicknamed him the crocodile although the team lost the finals this one win boosted their chances of winning the cup the following year then Renee defeated bill again in the next World group Final in one of his three matches against him the crocodile nickname made its way to France and Renee loved it admitting that the name highlighted his tenacity on the tennis courts and dedication to never giving up on his prey later that year the Davis Cup team were in a crucial match and their Captain promised Renee a crocodile skin suitcase if they won Renee took him on that promise and went ahead to win the match after winning the match Robert George designed a signature crocodile and embroidered it on Renee's Blazer he wore the Blazer to the court during his next game and his confidence drew the eyes of tennis fans although Renee had been wearing the crocodile branded Blazer to every game it wasn't until five years later that the cost brand finally launched having trained from a very young age Renee made some observations about his personal experience he realized that a long-sleeved button-up shirt was very uncomfortable to play in and did not enhance the player's flexibility this observation led to him designing the first version of the official tennis uniform today but it was still in the production stage and did not launch yet in 1933 Renee asked Andre gillier the owner of the largest French knitwear manufacturing firm at the time to embroider the crocodile on the front of his tennis shirt which he wore to the next game after that they produced more t-shirts and this migrated into a business the company was officially registered as La Society chemise Lacoste and it used Renee as the brand ambassador Renee's sportswear was revolutionary at the time because it was a short sleeve jersey knit polo shirt instead of the traditional button-up shirt Renee sportswear grew even more popular yet they could not gain a license to sell their products under the Lacoste brand name in the United States in 1950 Lacoste started a partnership with a corporation in the United States called izon they created a sub brand called Izod Lacoste that produces Lacoste branded clothing Lacoste started by producing only white-colored branded sportswear but from 1950 after their partnership with Izod they started producing shirts of other colors by 1970 Lacoste sportswear had gained full popularity in the United States seven years later a sportswear brand called Le Tigre was established in the U.

S to compete with Izod Lacoste they produced similar comfortable sportswear they went with another animal other than the crocodile but it was too difficult to defeat the popularity of Lacoste sportswear other sportswear companies in the U. S started making similar shirts and logos for their brand and the worth of the Lacoste brand grew even more although Renee was the first brand ambassador of the Lacoste brand he attributed its success to him not choosing a friendly animal to be the logo of Lacoste even after his retirement from tennis in 1932 Renee continued to design Innovative sports goods in the 1960s he designed an unprecedented steel racket in the 1960s which was used by Jimmy Connors and other top players his expanded Lacoste sporting territory from just sportswear to Sport Goods in 1964 Renee's son Bernard Lacoste took over the company he had been in charge of the partnership between Lacoste and Izod but within the 70s and 80s teenagers began to address the shirt as just Izod instead of izon Lacoste however the union of both Brands remained profitable until Izod lacoste's parent company Crystal Brands Incorporated drowned in debts from other business ventures the company tried to separate Izod and Lacoste to repay the debts but eventually Crystal had to sell their half of Lacoste back to the original French company while Izod was sold to another company in 1993 Lacoste ended their partnership with Izod after Lacoste regained exclusive U. S rights to distribute shirts under its own brand in 1990 Lacoste ended their long brand identity crisis with a Chinese company called crocodile after this was settled Bernard Lacoste decided they needed new management to take the company forward on the 12th of October 1996 the crocodile Renee Lacoste died at 92 years old the company mourned the loss of their founder but looked forward to the future in 2000 started by changing the creative director of Lacoste from Gil Rozier to Christoph Lemaire this decision helped re-establish lacoste's popularity as not just a sportswear company but also a luxury fashion brand Under the new Administration Lacoste Diversified their products away from just clothing Lacoste branched out into other areas of fashion and began producing Footwear eyewear leather goods lingerie perfume towels and watches in 2005 Bernard Lacoste fell sick and handed over the company to his younger brother Michael Lacoste Michael had worked in the company with his brother for years so he was more than capable of carrying on the legacy on the 21st of March 2006 Bernard died and the company mourned the loss of another president Lacoste began licensing its trademark to other companies after Michael took over its Administration however that decision changed in a few years although Lacoste polo shirts are manufactured under license in Thailand and China devonlay now owns an exclusive license to Lacoste clothes worldwide the company gained greater Heights and continued to expand their territory in 2007 Lacoste introduced an e-commerce site for the U.

S market and by 2010 Lacoste began using celebrities as brand ambassadors the most recent of which is tennis player Novak Djokovic he was named the new crocodile I'm proud to be the new crocodile after the brand originator Renee Lacoste hence Novak was given a brand ambassador five-year contract that started in 2017.