tennisnet. com and Lacoste present the “Crocodile Road to Roland Garros” – learn more about the life of company founder and tennis legend René Lacoste in our new series and win an exclusive VIP package for the French Open as well as weekly prizes from the sports and lifestyle brand.
René Lacoste has transformed the brand named after him into a global and hip company. Born in 1904, the former professional tennis player was one of the best players in his time and won the French Open in Paris in 1925,1927 and 1929 and many other tournaments. Together with his countrymen Henri Cochet, Jean Borotra and Jaques Brugnon, he shaped a golden era of tennis in France and won the Davis Cup several times for his country. Due to a lung disease, Lacoste unfortunately had to end his tennis career at the age of 25.
After his sporting career, the Frenchman started his business in 1933 and gave him the name “Lacoste”. It was supposed to grow into a cult brand. The logo of the clothing company is a crocodile derived from the nickname of its founder. Lacoste was called “Le crocodile” because he asked for a crocodile leather suitcase as a bet in the Davis Cup. Since then, the crocodile has adorned the Frenchman’s chest and, from the very beginning, the cult polo shirts of his company.
In keeping with the motto of the “White Sport”, the Polos were initially only available in plain white. Just under 20 years later, other colours joined the assortment of Lacoste-stores.
However, Lacoste not only had a great passion for fashion, but also tennis equipment was developed and distributed by the fashion icon. For a long time he trained on a green wall in Saint Jean de Luz on his family’s Chantaco golf course. Especially before the big match in 1927 against his idol Bill Tilden, he warmed up on the ball wall and meticulously trained his serve.
But he realized very quickly that there should be better training methods here. At the age of 23, Lacoste developed the first ball thrower to train high balls. Three years later he gave the rights to this brand to Dunlop in 1930.
As part of the Crocodile Road to Roland Garros and the French Open in Paris, Lacoste is giving away an exclusive VIP package including VIP tickets, backstage access, hotel, flight, welcome package and much more. For this purpose, we will ask you a weekly competition question for several weeks. The prize will be raffled among all the participants of our lottery, which will run until the 29th day of the competition. April 2018 runs. In addition, there is also a great product from Lacoste to win every week. This week there is a T-shirt from the current collection of the cult brand to win. You know the answer to our competition question this week? Post your answer on Facebook post and with a bit of luck you’ll be the lucky winner. The T-shirt competition runs until Sunday, 11. March 2018.