Performance Tennis Inspires New Lacoste Lifestyle Sneaker, The L003 Neo

Lacoste never strays far from tennis. The brand born in 1933 by legendary French player Rene Lacoste has embraced all things tennis with the launch of its latest lifestyle sneaker, the L003 Neo. And that inspiration? A tennis ball. It doesn’t get much more tennis than that.

“This new sneaker and its design language express movement,” says Catherine Spindler, deputy CEO of Lacoste, “in the same way that a tennis ball rolls with no effort and bounces with energy from one place to another. The ease of movement was at the center of the creation of this silhouette.”

With a wealth of colorways planned for the L003 Neo release, Spindler says they simply couldn’t resist embracing a “more literal and highly noticeable tennis neon yellow colorway.” That gives us a nearly verbatim tennis ball inspiration.

Spindler says Lacoste is always balancing the brand’s roots in tennis while turning to the future, even within its lifestyle offerings. “Tennis is definitely a strong element of our creative approach,” she says. “In addition, for us tennis is a mindset and a lifestyle that goes way beyond the tennis court.”

Lacoste has guaranteed it remains top-of-mind in the sport, sponsoring top-level men’s players Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev. In the last few years Lacoste has purchased performance tennis brand Tecnifibre and launched an on-court performance tennis silhouette, the AG-LT 21 Ultra, worn by Medvedev.

“On court, we have the world’s number-one player among our athlete ambassadors for whom we develop ground-breaking technologies to support them in achieving new performances in their sport,” Spindler says. “On the flip side, fashion allows us to further develop and convey the values of tennis as well as explore new creative territories. Our design process takes inspiration from both tennis expressions, constantly mixing codes between fashion and sport.”

“The L003 Neo makes no exception to that as it unites the ingredients of both our fashion and our sport performance worlds.”

The L003 Neo features oversized meshes, neoprene and technical trims inspired by sport performance. It also includes suedes, leathers and exposed foams based in fashion. The crocodile is seen on the side heel above the modern chunky outsole. “What is new is how we have mixed these two expressions of tennis on the L003 Neo,” Spindler says.

In a further mixing of performance and fashion, the color range of the L003 Neo features ties to both worlds, whether via the neon yellow of a tennis ball or the neon red, turquoise and many other hues.

Spindler says this dual identity—fashion and sport—allows Lacoste to explore fresh areas and stylistic expressions. “The L003 Neo sits at the intersection of sport and fashion, taking the best ingredients from each of them,” she says. “With it, our tennis court is expanding, providing all of us with a bigger place to play. Tennis performance is in our DNA, and you can expect us to deploy our best performance ingredients and aesthetics to the streets bridging these two worlds in a relevant and impactful way.”