On a quintessential summer’s day replete with cornflower-blue skies and pristine puffs of clouds, long queues are seen snaking towards Stade Roland Garros. The intimidation of ultra-tight security checks to access the stadium — an everyday reality in a city embroiled in an extended state of emergency — does not seem to deter the hordes of spectators, despite the underlying sense of peril. It seems tennis fans, galvanised by enthusiasm to catch an outstanding assemblage of world-class sport action, are determined to make their way into the inner sanctum of the Parisian sporting venue. Torrential downpours had halted play the day before, causing two quarter-final matches to be moved to the day’s line-up. Eight of the world’s top men players (sans Roger Federer) and the top two women players are headlining matches in a single day. Tennis rivals football as the national game of France, and the immense popularity of the sport has seen the twoweek French Open at Roland Garros attract an average of 428,000 visitors annually since 2010.
Being in the City of Lights for a first-hand experience of Roland Garros, courtesy of Lacoste — an official sponsor of the world’s premier clay court tennis championship since 1971 — also makes for an opportune moment to speak with CEO Thierry Guibert. Dressed in a monochromatic off-duty ensemble — a light grey polo shirt and zip-front cardigan paired with fitted black trousers — the Lacoste head emanates a cool, insouciant air more akin to a creative personality than a corporate figure. “It’s not easy to sum up 85 years,” Guibert says of Lacoste. “We have evolved, but retained the DNA of a trans-generational brand from the beginning — a commitment to the values of fair play and tenacity built upon two pillars: sport and elegance. At the end of the day, the brand has remained very strong by staying close to what René Lacoste originally developed in 1933.” To tennis and sport buffs, the name René Lacoste is certainly a familiar one. A French sporting legend who won 10 Grand Slam titles between 1925 and 1929 and invented a slew of tennis paraphernalia — the tennis ball machine (1928), steel tennis racket (1963), anti-vibration dampener for the tennis racket (1964) and vibrationabsorbing damper located in the racket handle (1971) — Lacoste ultimately became known as the inventor of the polo shirt.
“The positioning of the brand is unique because it is a mix between a casual brand and a sport brand,” Guibert says. “There is no other brand in the world with this positioning. It is where we will be heading to in the future because consumers are increasingly looking for an elegant and comfortable product that can be worn every day.” Starting out in his career at KPMG, Guibert then joined the Kering group (formerly PPR), where he steadily rose through the ranks. Initially dealing with mergers and acquisitions in the conglomerate’s luxury division as it amassed the fashion brands of Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent, he then moved to its retail arm as group chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Fnac and, subsequently, as chairman and CEO of furniture-based Conforama, before landing the top job at Lacoste as CEO and president of the management board. Having spent most of his two-decade career in diverse businesses, his working experience — managing design and merchandising teams at fashion companies and driving mass-market and retail companies dealing with lower-margin consumer and technical products such as books, television sets and furniture — equips him with a versatile skill set to fortify Lacoste’s business and design strategy and operations for its next phase. Confessing to be a sport enthusiast who enjoys running and tennis, Guibert has a natural affinity with the sporting heritage of Lacoste. After his appointment, he directed the team back to the two pillars of sport elegance and Frenchness, and to leverage the brand’s specific savoir faire after strong attempts were made to project Lacoste onto the fashion stage in the preceding years. “It had became unclear what the brand could bring to consumers, so we worked to reinstate and reinforce its two original pillars,” Guibert says. As he sets out to clarify the brand pillars in marketing campaigns, Guibert is also focused on enlarging the product categories of Lacoste. “I was convinced that the perception of Lacoste as a polo brand had to change. It should be seen as a lifestyle brand with a large ecosystem beyond the polo shirt, offering a large palette of products, including footwear, leather goods, underwear and eyewear. It is important to build Lacoste as a global brand beyond just a polo brand.” The new crocodile
Meanwhile, the sartorial scene at Roland Garros offers plenty of visual cues to be distilled from the pillars of Lacoste’s DNA, both on and off court. Introduced as the new Lacoste brand ambassador under a five-year contract on May 22 in Monte Carlo, Novak Djokovic is the perfect embodiment of the “New Crocodile”. In focusing the spotlight back onto sport elegance à la Lacoste, Guibert has much to say in praise of the Serbian tennis star and 12-time Grand Slam champion. “For an ambassador, we look for three things: performance, values and good looks. Nole (Djokovic’s nickname) represents these three things,” he says.
To ensure Lacoste maintains its prime position among the world’s foremost clothing brands, Guibert has devised a strategy to rationalise the business of Lacoste for it to grow. In the last 30 to 40 years, the company entered into a number of licensing agreements in various countries to develop the brand, but since coming on board, Guibert’s objective is to retract these licences over time. “It is very important to have control over distribution to ascertain the products are distributed in the right areas and right stores with qualitative measures for environment, pricing and so on,” he explains. “What we’ve done now for some years is to consolidate the distribution network and reduce the scale of off-price retailing within the brand (usually at outlets and department stores) to ensure the majority of the brand is sold on a full price basis with customary and routine end-of-season discounts. This is very important to protect the brand and preserve its premium status for the future,” he says, adding that rampant discounting is affecting some retail brands, especially in the US, today. Coming across as casual yet direct and straightforward in his demeanour throughout the interview, Guibert reveals his management style is one that is based on trust. “I like to trust people. When you are working for a company, you need to have passion, transparency and fair play with behaviour that is honest. My style is to be very close to my team. I like to go inside the store, discuss with my team and feel what it is like on the retail floor to gauge customer dynamics at the store. It is important to be quick and agile, with constant communication and a very direct style of management. “The main thing I have tried to do since I joined Lacoste is to build a new team and new culture of humility and commitment. It is very important to grow fast and to grow far with the brand, so this is what we have done.” With these solid values in place, the brand symbolised by the crocodile will continue to rock for a long time to come.
Things to know about the L.12.12 polo shirt
A symbol of casual elegance, the L.12.12 revolutionised the sportswear industry when it first appeared. Today, the iconic piece of clothing has become a chic, timeless essential and enjoys constant renewal by Lacoste. Find out what accounts for the many points of difference between a Lacoste L.12.12 and the generic polo shirt seen in everyday clothing.
- The first cotton polo shirt was invented and worn by the legendary French tennis player René Lacoste. The revolutionary Lacoste L.12.12 polo shirt was conceived by René Lacoste and André Gillier in 1933, with its first advertising campaign launched that same year.
- The L.12.12 was a short-sleeved shirt in a new breathable fabric called petit piqué jersey and featured the crocodile logo. It went into production in 1933.
- The unique, thicker polo collar, which can be upturned to protect the neck from the sun during play, was patented by René Lacoste in 1961.
- Decoding the L.12.12: L stands for Lacoste; 1 for the unique fabric — cotton petit piqué — 2 for the short-sleeved version; and 12 for the number of the version finally selected by René Lacoste.
- It takes 20km to 25km of pure cotton yarn and 25 control operations to create a single L.12.12 polo shirt.
- There are 1,400 embroidery points for each crocodile logo on the L.12.12 polo shirt.
- The L.12.12 is available in 40 colours, enriched every season with numerous new shades. It comes in classic, regular and slim fits for men, and classic, slim fits and slim fit chemise for women.
- The L.12.12 has been reinvented and redesigned countless times by renowned designers and personalities — including Jean-Paul Goude, Maison Lesage, Karl Lagerfeld and the Campana brothers.
- Now designed at the Lacoste studio in Paris, the L.12.12 has been manufactured in its historical workshops for almost 85 years in Troyes, the French capital of textile. It is manufactured using unique French savoir faire that includes a revolutionary knitting technique, the art of dyeing and meticulous handcrafting.
