Lacoste

The Lacoste crocodile, 1927 The tennis champion René Lacoste was nicknamed the Crocodile by the American press, a name tied, in the often-told story, to a bet over a crocodile-skin suitcase and to his tenacious play. In 1927 his friend Robert George drew a crocodile that Lacoste had embroidered on the blazer he wore to compete. When he and André Gillier founded the company in 1933, the reptile moved onto the chest of the shirt. The brand says it was the first logo worn on the outside of a garment, a claim that is hard to prove, but it set the template every polo-shirt emblem has followed since.