Lacoste was founded by tennis champion, René Lacoste in the 1930s. He knew the tenacity an athlete needed to have to be on top of his game. Since then, Lacoste has always kept a foot in sport, sponsoring athletes and the French Olympic and Paralympic team.

There was no brief for this campaign. We work closely with Lacoste, and knowing their core values, engagement platform and capacity to lead innovative and ground-breaking projects, the agency pro-actively suggested this idea.

The objective was to move sponsorship and brand campaigns further, to embody what the brand truly believes in: equal chances.

We created the very first collection bearing the name of a disabled athlete, Théo Curin.

A lifestyle collection intended for both able-bodied and disabled people.

From the logo to each individual piece, every element was inspired by the life of this extraordinary athlete.

The Lacoste engagement platform is “Elevating elegance to a value that transcends difference”. Lacoste supports equal chances, whatever the background or the obstacles life puts on your way.

Lacoste is a fashion brand that was born on the tennis courts. Just like Nike with Jordan or Williams, Lacoste has a dedicated line for Novak Djokovic.

But we realized no brand had ever designed a collection inspired by a disabled athlete. Yet, their tenacity, their performance, and the inspiration they embody towards younger generations should not be ignored.

At 16, Theo Curin was the youngest athlete in the Paralympic French team in Rio, he then became world champion, and he recently took up the crazy challenge to swim across Lake Titicaca.

With this collection, we wanted to ensure that for the first time in the world, a great athlete with a disability received the same honor as any other great athlete.

The´o Curin, Louise Trotter - Creative Director of Lacoste - and her teams worked together to design a universal wardrobe. From the logo to each individual piece, every element is inspired by Théo. Beyond the style elements, special features were integrated into the design, such as the buttons being replaced by snaps, or the ties that allow the sleeves to be rolled up easily.

This attention to detail, inspired by Curin’s daily life and developed in collaboration with Louise Trotter, makes it easier for people with disabilities to use these pieces, while retaining Lacoste’s signature style and elegance.

To capture this creative process, we followed Théo Curin for a full year, from his preparation for the Titicaca challenge to the design of his collection.

This first collection was intended for the French market as Theo Curin is not yet very well-known abroad.

But other markets loved the idea so much they asked to run it too. The collection was therefore launched also in the US, the UK, Mexico and Spain. And the next collection will be available in even more markets to follow international excitement.

So far, the campaign reached 244 million people thanks to PR and the brand’s ambassadors (tennis & golf players, artists…). On social media, the film went viral with an engagement rate above 8% on Instagram and more than 2% on Youtube.

The collection was only released on April 1st and is still being rolled out but there is already a lot of interest from consumers.