The evolution of tennis and polo shirts

A tennis shirt, polo shirt or golf shirt all refers to a type of t-shirt that is made of knitted cloth, usually pique cotton. Its style is customarily with some buttons down a slit below the collar, two small cuts on the bottom of each side of the t-shirt and maybe with or without a pocket. On rare occasions are tennis shirts made of silk, merino wool or synthetic fibers.

Between the nineteenth and early twentieth century, tennis players had a tough time playing their games as a result of poor design of their attire. In those days, they had to wear long-sleeved shirts, trousers and even ties to the tennis court. These formal cloths were akin to what the white collars of today wear to work and were simply too heavy and cumbersome for professional playing. Therefore, a French tennis player called Rene Lacoste decided to start his own line of tennis shirts named after himself, Lacoste. The 7-time Grand Slam tennis champion came up with a loosely-knitted un-starched pique cotton tennis shirt with a collar and longer shirt-tail at the back. The collar is thicker so that it could be upturned and provide the neck protection from the sun while playing. Actually, before Lacoste invented the revolutionary tennis shirt in 1929, polo shirts already had the button-down collar design since the late nineteenth century. While this design was able to prevent the wind from flapping the collars against the players’ neck, the long-sleeved polo shirts which were made of Oxford-cloth cotton were clumsy to wear on the field. As a result, Lacoste’s tennis shirts were promptly taken on by the polo players as their apparel in the 1930s.

It was not long before the term polo shirt became synonymous with tennis shirt. By the 1950s, polo shirts were commonly considered as part of the formal tennis attire in America. Even the tennis players themselves referred to their attire as a “polo shirt”. In actual fact, this type of t-shirt was first worn in a tennis court rather than in a game of polo and had a longer history in the tennis sports world.

In 1967, Ralph Lauren included a polo shirt as a prominent part of his original line called Polo, thereby probably helping to further its already widespread popularity. While not specifically geared for use by polo players, Lauren’s custo polo shirts imitated what was by that time standard attire for polo players.

As golf attire become more easygoing and less formal in the twentieth century, golf also adopted tennis shirt as its standard attire. Most golfers today, male and female alike, are wearing tennis shirts. For the ladies, tennis shirts can be custom made in different kinds of colors. But because golf is an entirely different game from tennis, it requires different design of cuts on the tennis shirt, resulting in the monicker “golf shirt”. Now that tennis shirt is so commonly worn in today’s society, it has its own niche in the market. Since both men and women wear it in any and every occasion, almost every fashion producer started to invent at least a version or variation of Lacoste’s tennis shirt for non-athletics purposes. At the same time, tennis shirts are just the perfect substitute attire for jobs where round collar-t-shirts are deemed unacceptable and yet formal business wear is deemed overdressed, such as for semi-professional and retail workers. Tennis shirts are widely accepted as smart and casual wear.

Its rough and ready style also makes it a favored shirt for those working outdoors, such as field guides and labourers. During the 1990s, the tennis shirt became the standard business informal/casual attire for the high tech industry and then spread to other industries. Company logos are often printed on these tennis shirts to be used as custom corporate apparel. Some government officials in India wear tennis shirts as standard work attire.

Many schools, in particular junior schools, are adopting tennis shirts as their mandatory uniforms, for both boys and girls alike. Tennis shirts are even more popular in sports, widely worn by officials such as caddies, retired golf experts, umpires and sports announcers as part of their work attire. Since tennis shirts are very commonly associated with outdoor or sports activities, they come in different shades of light colors. For instance, white is typically used in tennis.

Like in the original Lacoste’s design, sometimes a tennis shirt is cut so that the back hangs a few centimeters lower than the front also known as a "tennis tail". The longer tail is meant to keep the shirt tucked into the back of a man's tennis shorts when he is bent over to survey the court. The easily-upturnable collar remains another athletic aid to protect against sun burns.

The tennis shirt or polo shirt will continue to occupy a niche in the fashion industry, regardless of the changing trends and times. It has become an essential wear in our daily lives.