Ralph Lauren Enters The Polo Market

Years passed, and the polo shirt continued to rise in popularity and maintained its status as a staple in men’s attire. Quietly in New York, a man who called himself Ralph Lauren sat at his desk trying to figure out a name for his new line of casual wear while still maintaining an air of sophistication. Since polo was the sport of Royals, he decided to call it ‘Polo.’ The polo emblem first appeared on women’s suits in 1971. To highlight the line, he designed a polo shirt, launched it in 1972 and used it as the marketing tool for his new line of casual clothing for men

A heated war between Lauren and Lacoste ensued and lasted much of the 1980s and 90s. However, with the Ralph Lauren name and budget as well as its reputation in the ivy league schools, Ralph Lauren managed to beat out Lacoste and became the iconic shirt coveted by men worldwide. As the teenagers from the 1950s grew up, they continued to wear their polo shirts as a fashionable choice in clothing. With the start of the tech industry and more offices adopting less formal work environments, they began to wear the polo shirts as standard work apparel. Soon industry took notice, and the polo shirt was taken as a uniform for many trades and retail environments. Companies began to realize that they could easily brand the shirts and began to use them as a regulated uniform for their staff with logos branded on the sleeves, breast, collar and back of the shirts.

Fred Perry & The Embroidered Logo

A couple of years later, tennis legend, Fred Perry, decided to make his own version of the polo shirt using much of the same design but incorporating a logo that was stitched into the shirt rather than just ironed on. Despite the Lacoste polo still being the prime choice for athletes, Perry’s shirt became popular with teenage boys in the mid 1950s and soon the polo shirt was no longer just a sport shirt, but a fashionable shirt to wear outside of athletics.

Eisenhower Wearing Lacoste in the Fifties

By 1933, Lacoste started his company, and the polo shirt began selling internationally and quickly to athletes and fans around the world. Looking for new opportunities, Lacoste realized he could sell more shirts if he created various designs, and so shirts of different colors began to be sold which gave way to the modern trend of bold polo shirts. Sold only in fine menswear and department stores, the polo shirt was now considered a staple in any well-dressed man’s wardrobe.
By 1933, Lacoste started his company, and the polo shirt began selling internationally and quickly to athletes and fans around the world. Looking for new opportunities, Lacoste realized he could sell more shirts if he created various designs, and so shirts of different colors began to be sold which gave way to the modern trend of bold polo shirts. Sold only in fine menswear and department stores, the polo shirt was now considered a staple in any well-dressed man’s wardrobe.

Lacoste & The U.S. Open 1926

Realizing that the polo shirt could have multiple uses, especially due to its wind resistant collar, tennis great Rene Lacoste designed the modern polo shirt as we know it today. He realized that one benefit it could have was removing the sleeves; an idea he got from rolling up the starched sleeves of his long-sleeved white tennis shirt. He also wanted a shirt without buttons as the tennis shirts of the 1920s commonly had, so he removed those and was left with a short sleeved shirt that could be slipped on over the head. To make the shirt easier to wear, he invented the tennis tail which allowed the back of the shirt to be slightly longer than the front and therefore more comfortable to tuck in and keep in place during a heated match. He also adopted an innovative knit called pique cotton that allowed the shirt to be machine-knitted which made it far more durable and lightweight. Despite not creating this technology, it is that added benefit that caused the Lacoste line of polo shirts to become instantly famous. Trying to figure out a logo to allow his brand to become easily recognizable, he took advantage of his nickname “The Crocodile” which he got from his unusually long nose. He created the Lacoste crocodile logo and placed a small ironed-on logo on each shirt. Wearing his shirt proudly to the 1926 US Open, he won it and immediately the shirt became a staple in tennis wear and active wear around the world. Immediately the polo world took notice and adopted the same shirts for use in their game. Paying homage to where Lacoste got the idea, he opted to name them polo shirts rather than tennis shirts. The button down collar was no more, and polo players liked the woven shirts because the comfortable, yet sturdy collar could be popped up allowing them more protection from sunburns.

French tennis players Rene Lacoste and Suzanne Lenglen in play during the mixed doubles.

The Polo Horse Appears

As the roaring twenties hit, a designer and polo player named Lewis Lacey began introducing a new lighter-weight polo shirt with an embroidered picture of a polo player on the breast in his store in the Buenos Aires.

Brooks Brothers Brings The Polo Shirt To The U.S.

During a trip to England at the end of the 1800s, John E. Brooks, heir to the American Brooks Brothers haberdasher attended a polo game and noticed the button down collars on the shirts of the polo players. Thinking it was a brilliant idea, he brought back the idea to his grandfather, and they began to introduce a new dress shirt with a button-down collar that we know of today as the button down dress shirt. Despite the idea and design of the polo shirt progressing, Brooks Brothers still maintains that they created the original polo shirt.

Polo Ralph Lauren Ad 1975

Lacoste & Indian

While its history is uncertain, most believe it was originally developed as its known today back in the latter part of the roaring twenties by Rene Lacoste. However, historians have also charted it as far back as the mid-1800s in Manipur, India. Allegedly, soldiers with the British Army witnessed a polo match by locals and took it upon themselves to open the very first polo club in the world where the sport grew in popularity throughout India. At the time, most of them wore long-sleeved shirts made of thick cotton with broad collars but due to the heat and discomfort, they began attaching buttons to the shirt collar to prevent them from flapping in their face as the horses galloped. As they returned to Britain, they brought with the game of polo that was introduced to England in 1862.

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