Costco Connection - February 2012

The polo shirt improves its performance

THE TRADITIONAL polo shirt began life in the late 19th century as, appropriately, a polo shirt, popularized in India and transported to colonial Britain by polo players. ;e white Oxford-cloth cotton shirts were designed with long sleeves and button-down collars to keep them from ;apping in the faces of players as they were riding in the wind.

In the early 20th century, French seven-time Grand Slam champion René Lacoste set out to design more comfortable tennis wear, based on the long-sleeve polo shirt. Lacoste’s short-sleeve design featured a small ribbed protruding collar that was le; unstarched, short sleeves with ribbed bands, a buttoned placket and an elongated shirttail that would not pull out during vigorous physical exertion. He ;rst wore the shirt at the 1926 U.S. Open Championship and began to market the design a;er retiring and forming the company Chemise Lacoste.

;e next stage in the shirt’s evolution has been the development of the performance polo.

“We’re seeing performance fabrics making their way into a lot of apparel, particularly in polo shirts,” says Costco buyer Dorothy Weissman. Typically these shirts feature mois-ture-wicking properties and some polyester to provide easy-care, no-iron maintenance. Some performance fabrics also incorporate UPF sun protection. A “plated” collar that won’t curl up around the edges and a long shirttail that remains tucked in are features of the higher-quality polos.

“One of the great things about these shirts is that the new fabrics let designers work in a much wider variety of colors and patterns,” says Dorothy. “;is means that the shirts can be used for more than just golf or tennis, and will look good in the o;ce or out on the town.”—T. Foster Jones

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By 1950 this shirt style was almost universally known as the polo shirt.

Polo shirts have been available in three main styles stemming from Lacoste’s original design: piqué, a durable garment fashioned in a raised design; interlock, which feels so; and ;rm, with good elasticity; and lisle, which is made by combing and then tightly twisting long-staple cotton ;bers into two-ply yarn that imparts a very silky, so; texture.

The Costco Connection Costco is releasing a series of brand-name performance polo shirts—including a Kirkland Signature™ polo—over several months: Greg Norman polo in January, Hathaway and Adidas in March, Kirkland Signature in April, Cutter & Buck in May and Pebble Beach in June.