Lacoste

In 1933, René LACOSTE and André Gillier, the owner and chairman of France’s largest knitwear manufacturing firm at the time, set up a company to make a revolutionary new sports shirt with the infamous Aligator logo designed by the champion embroidered onto the chest, for his own use on the tennis court. Also marketed were a number of other tennis, golf and sailing shirts, as can be seen in the first catalogue from 1933.

To the best of our knowledge, this was the first time that a brand name appeared on the outside of an article of clothing - an idea which has since become extremely successful.