The shirt that Rene Lacoste designed for himself in 1922 was intended to be worn when playing tennis and golf: "Pour moi, Pour jouer creer une chemise." His design became a massive success. By 1939 up to 300,000 shirts were being produced annually. It quickly too the place of the ling sleeved overshirt as the clothing favored by tennis players. The Design was based on the shirt worn by real polo players. The Idea for a shirt like this was in the air at the time; Lacosete simply had the luck or the genius to be the first person to put his stamp on the idea. the crocodile logo he had sewn onto his shirts was intended as protection against imitations. in the 1930's everone in france knew why he had chosen this animal as his symbol. "le crocodile" was lacoste's nickname as a tennis player....
