Lacoste and Alpine Unveil a Historic Collaboration When the court meets the track
It is the unexpected alliance of two monuments of French sporting heritage. Lacoste and Alpine have just unveiled a major collaboration, blending the elegance of tenniswear with the engineering of motorsport. Inspired by their respective founders, René Lacoste and Jean Rédélé, this unique project features an exclusive capsule collection and a spectacular one-off car: the Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye 'Beware of the Crocodile'.
To bring this union to life, a short film titled Le Test was produced by the production company of actor and Lacoste ambassador Pierre Niney. The latter shares the screen with Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly in a playful, complicit face-off around the racing car.
'Beware of the Crocodile': An Electric one-off Car
Far from being limited to mere stickers slapped on a bodywork, this collaboration is built on a technical racing foundation: the Alpine A290 Rallye, a 100% electric version and the brand's future production model.
The car's silhouette has been beefed up for rallying: widened tracks, imposing spoilers, a spectacular diffuser, and exposed carbon fiber. The bluish-white bodywork evokes the snow and ice of Alpine landscapes. The design's starting point? The red tongue of the famous Lacoste crocodile, cleverly scattered throughout the graphic details of the bodywork. In total, no fewer than 290 crocodiles are hidden within the vehicle's overall design.
The cabin offers a striking contrast, plunging the driver (dubbed 'Crocopilota' here) into a monochromatic bright red atmosphere, symbolizing the inside of the reptile's mouth. Lacoste's famous petit piqué fabric dresses the seats and door panels, embroidered by the historic house Potencier (the workshop behind the original polo shirts' crocodiles). The rally bucket seats integrate 3D-printed honeycomb structures by the company ERPRO, optimizing both comfort and weight reduction - a crucial challenge in rallying.
A Capsule Collection to Take Anywhere
To extend the experience off the track, the design studios have imagined a textile collection gathering a technical wardrobe that includes t-shirts, accessories, and (of course) bright red co-branded polo shirts. This wardrobe successfully bridges the aesthetic codes of the tennis court and the racetrack, both focused on movement and precision.
It is precisely this unique synergy that Éric Vallat, CEO of Lacoste, wanted to praise, emphasizing that both houses have "imagined a project that celebrates French ingenuity through a shared vision of performance and elegance." This philosophy is also shared by Antony Villain, Alpine Design Director, for whom this collaboration "blends the technicality of competition, the lightness of design, and the elegance of a timeless style."
Beyond words, this partnership transcends disciplines to prove that performance, whether electric or textile, stems from the very same instinct: the art of mastering movement, on the asphalt as on the court.
