Lacoste

At the age of 18, René Lacoste lived in Bordeaux with his family and was a gifted student at the Polytechnic School. Just like his father, he was passionate about sport and playing tennis took up most of his time. This passion finally led him to abandon his studies to invent his own life. Match after match, René Lacoste wrote the history of tennis until he became the best player in the world (1926-1927) With seven Grand Slam titles under his belt, he made a name for himself – and even earned a nickname. In Boston in 1923, his captain promised to buy him a crocodile leather suitcase he had been admiring in a shop window if he won his next match. René lost, but in tribute to his tenacity on the court and in reference to this unusual bet, the American press christened him “the crocodile.” The nickname was quickly adopted throughout the tennis world. René himself even encouraged it, asking his friend and stylist Robert George to sew a crocodile onto the white jackets he wore when arriving onto the court. And with that, the legend began.