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LACOSTE X GENTLE MATES: THE POLO THAT BRIDGED HIGH FASHION AND ESPORT

EVENT • CULTURAL MILESTONE • PRODUCTION

Year

2025

Role in project

event

Clients

LACOSTE - GENTLE MATES

In October 2025, two seemingly distant worlds came together around a polo shirt. On one side, Lacoste, the French fashion house founded in 1933 — a global symbol of athletic elegance. On the other, Gentle Mates, the esport organisation co-founded by Squeezie, Gotaga and Brawks — three of France’s biggest content creators with a combined audience of over 62 million followers across all platforms.

Hype Notice, in collaboration with At Paris, conceived and produced the entire operation — from product co-creation to the launch event at the Lacoste Arena on the Champs-Élysées.

A limited-edition polo born from an unlikely co-creation

From art direction to 3D animations

At the heart of the collaboration sits an exclusive reinterpretation of the iconic Lacoste L.12.12 Original Polo — khaki green, pearl buttons, Gentle Mates-branded embroideries, and the club’s motto “play, love, live, laugh” woven into the fabric. Available as a limited edition at €130, exclusively at the Champs-Élysées flagship and on lacoste.com.

The production chain was handled entirely in-house:

  • Co-creation with Lacoste and Gentle Mates’ creative teams
  • Visual identity direction and storytelling
  • Official photo shoot supervision
  • 3D animation creation for retail and digital platforms
  • Full event production and coordination

982,000 views in a matter of hours: what a well-built activation
looks like

On October 22, 2025, the Lacoste Arena became a meeting point between fashion fans and esport communities. Meet & greet, immersive scenography, Gentle Mates players on-site: the event generated immediate, massive engagement.

The numbers tell the story. Gentle Mates’ announcement tweet reached 115,600 views within hours. The polo reveal video accumulated nearly 982,000 views on X. Coverage followed from Sport Buzz Business, Les Gens d’Internet and The Esports Radar internationally.

This is what happens when an activation is built right — the right product, the right audience, the right event format. It spreads on its own. That’s exactly what we design for.

Premium fashion and esport: a convergence we saw coming in 2018

This collaboration reflects a deeper shift we have been accompanying since the agency was founded: gaming and pop culture communities are no longer niche markets — they are mainstream cultural drivers capable of amplifying a brand to millions of people within hours.

Brands like Lacoste, Asics and PlayStation understand this. We help them cross that bridge — with creative depth, genuine cultural knowledge, and end-to-end production capacity.

👉 Also worth reading: Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero — 3 million sales on day one — and Kagurabachi with Kana Editions.