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

It's all fun and jokes until you make millions of

dollar

s doing it. This is the story of legendary tennis player Renee Lacoste, who founded the luxury

brand

Lacoste. She went from

jokingly

marking her

shirt

with a crocodile to making millions of

dollar

s selling clothes with crocodiles on them. But how did the crocodile prank start and how did it turn the cost into a multi-million dollar

brand

? Renée Lacoste was born on July 2, 1904 in Paris, France. Her parents, Jean Marie Magdalene Larolay and Jean-ju Lacoste, were senior students at the society. Ella Renee could do whatever she wanted, however, she became interested in tennis when she was 15 years old.

Ella Renee enjoyed playing tennis so much that she wanted to make a career out of it. Her father, Jean Zhu Lacoste, was not intrigued with the possibility of a career in tennis. for her son because Renée was not as skilled as the best tennis players after seeing her son's passion for tennis. Jean-ju Lacoste finally gave Renée his blessing on the condition that she become world champion within five years. This was a huge challenge, but Renée wanted to prove herself to her father, she began training intensively for three years in 1922. Renée participated in her first tennis competition, which was the Wimbledon Championship Grand Slam Tournament, but unfortunately lost in the first round.

These results worried him due to pressure from her father. her father to succeed the following year, she participated in her first competition in the United States. Things were a little better this time as he reached the fourth round but was narrowly defeated by Cecil Campbell although he continued his training diligently, slowly, pushing his limits and by 1923 he was selected to play in France for the Davis Cup team. Renée played alongside Jean-Varotra, Jacques Bronon and Enrico Shea. Together, the men were so formidable that tennis fans nicknamed them the Four Musketeers. Renée reached her first major final in 1925 at Wimbledon, but lost.

For a fellow musketeer, John Barotra, her defeat made him train Eva even harder, not forgetting the promise she made to her father that same year. Renee won the French championship title and at the following Wimbledon tournament she had a rematch with John Barotra in the final, this time she emerged. As a champion, Renee was finally worthy of playing tennis in her father's eyes, but she lost her French championship title the following year to Enrico Shay after her loss. Renee did not compete at Wimbledon that year, she spent her time training and improving at tennis. In September 1926 she competed in the United States National Championship and her last match was once again against Jean-Brotra.

She won the championship match against Jean and was ranked the number one tennis player in 1926 by The Daily Telegraph. Renee is also credited with inventing the tennis ball. machine and has had more phenomenal achievements in his tennis career, but how did any of them 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 slid across the court while playing in 1926, the French Davis Cup team reached the final of the world group and lost to the US team.

However, something phenomenal happened in the last tournament that intrigued American journalists: the American team had Bill Tilden as its 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 all the tennis enthusiasts in the world were on the edge of their seats to everyone's surprise. Renee pulled off an upset for Triunfo over Bill by winning the four-set match. American journalists present at the match noticed Renee's phenomenal playing style and nicknamed him the crocodile. Although the team lost the final, this victory increased her chances of winning the cup the following year.

Renee defeated Bill again in the following world group final in one of her three matches against him. The crocodile nickname came to France and Renee loved it, admitting that the name highlighted her tenacity on the tennis courts and her dedication to never giving up on her prey. Later that year, the Davis Cup team was in a crucial match and their captain promised Renee a crocodile skin suitcase if they won. Renee kept that promise and kept going to win the match after winning the match. Robert George designed a distinctive crocodile and embroidered it. In Renee's Blazer, he wore the Blazer on court during his next game and his confidence caught the attention of tennis fans.

Although Renee had been wearing the Crocodile-

branded

Blazer in every game, it wasn't until five years later that the Cost brand was finally launched. Trained from a young age, Renee made some observations about his personal experience. He realized that a long-sleeved button-down

shirt

was very uncomfortable to play in and did not improve the player's flexibility. This observation led him to design the first version of the official uniform. tennis uniform today, but it was still in the production stage and was not yet released in 1933. Renée asked André Gillier, the owner of the largest French knitwear manufacturing company at the time, to embroider the crocodile on the front of his tennis shirt that he wore in the The next game they produced more shirts and this migrated into a business.

The company officially registered as La Society chemise Lacoste and used Renee as a brand ambassador. Renee's sportswear was revolutionary at the time because it was a short-sleeved knit polo. shirt instead of the traditional button-down shirt. Renee's sportswear became even more popular, but they were unable to obtain a license to sell their products under the Lacoste brand in the United States. In 1950, Lacoste began a partnership with a corporation in the United States called izon. They created a sub-brand called Izod Lacoste that produces Lacoste brand clothing. Lacoste began producing only white

branded

sportswear, but starting in 1950, after their association with Izod, they began producing t-shirts in 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 US to compete with Izod Lacoste. They produced similar comfortable sportswear. They used another animal besides the crocodile, but it was too difficult to defeat the popularity of Lacoste sportswear. The United States began manufacturing similar t-shirts and logos for their brand and the value of the Lacoste brand grew even more, although Renee was the first Lacoste brand ambassador and attributed her success to not choosing a friendly animal to be the Lacoste logo. even after. her retirement from tennis in 1932 Renee continued to design innovative sporting goods in the 1960s she designed an unprecedented steel racket in the 1960s which was used by Jimmy Connors and other top players her Lacoste sporting territory expanded from sportswear to sporting 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 in the 70s and 80s teenagers began referring to the shirt simply as Izod instead of izon Lacoste, however, the union of both brands remained profitable until the parent company of Izod was founded.

Crystal Brands Incorporated drowned in debts from other business ventures, the company attempted to separate Izod and Lacoste to pay off the debts, but ultimately Crystal had to sell its half of Lacoste to the original French company, while Izod was sold to another company in 1993. Lacoste ended its partnership with Izod after Lacoste regained exclusive rights in the US to distribute t-shirts under its own brand in 1990. Lacoste ended its long-running brand identity crisis with a Chinese company called crocodile after this was resolved. Bernard Lacoste decided they needed new management to move the company forward on the 12th. In October 1996, crocodile Renee Lacoste died at age 92.

The company mourned the loss of its founder, but looked to the future. In 2000, it began with the change of Lacoste's creative director from Gil Rozier to Christoph Lemaire. This decision helped restore Lacoste's popularity. not only as a sportswear company but also as a luxury fashion brand. Under the new management, Lacoste diversified its products and stopped limiting itself to clothing. Lacoste diversified into other areas of fashion and began producing footwear, eyewear, leather goods, lingerie, perfumes, towels and watches in 2005. Bernard Lacoste became ill and handed the company over to his younger brother Michael Lacoste Michael had worked at the company with his brother for years, so he was more than capable of carrying on the legacy.

On March 21, 2006, Bernard died and the company mourned the loss of another president. Lacoste began licensing its brand to other companies after Michael took over its management, however that decision changed within a few years, although Lacoste polo shirts are manufactured under license in Thailand and China, Devonlay now owns a exclusive license to Lacoste clothing worldwide, the company achieved greater heights and continued to expand its territory in 2007. Lacoste introduced an e-commerce site for the American market and in 2010 Lacoste began using celebrities as brand ambassadors, the most recent of which was tennis player Novak Djokovic. He was named the new crocodile I'm proud to be. the new crocodile in honor of the brand's creator Renee Lacoste, for which Novak was awarded a five-year contract as a brand ambassador that began in 2017.

Today, the Lacoste brand's crocodile logo speaks on behalf of the company, the brand is extremely popular among millions of fans on and off social media. media from diverse communities Lacoste founded the Renee Lacoste Foundation to help children play sports in school and provide them with a supportive community. It has gone from a company named after a joke to a

billion

-dollar brand. Have you seen designer clothes with a crocodile symbol? What did you think it meant? Have you tried buying a Lacoste brand product? Was it too expensive? Comment your opinion below. Don't forget to like this video and watch other videos on our channel.