In 1927, walking along the streets of Boston with the captain of the French team of the Davis Cup, René Lacoste stopped by to admire the crocodile leather suitcase in a shop window. The captain promised to buy it as a gift if he could win the next day game for the French team. René did not win the game, and in the next day sports chronicle a diary published : « The young Lacoste did not win the match and the crocodile leather suitcase, but there is no doubt that he fought as a crocodile ».
Finished his sport career he decided to build a company and commercialize the pole with the crocodile in it, which started marketing in 1933 and which was only of white color for years. The initial catalogue also was including some models designed to practice the sailing and the golf.
Looking back to the history of the company, Lacostes’ considers that nowadays this initiative has turned them into the pioneers of taking the brand of the signature in a visible part of the cloth.
