The authentic and timeless world of Ralph Lauren
May 2026
RL/Culture

Love of the Game

The connection between a boyhood dream world inspired by the original giants of the New York sports scene and the athletic spirit of Polo.
By Ralph Lauren
I had the Polo Pony embroidered on the chest because I liked the concept of making something fashionable that was still about sport. I also wanted it to be something you could wear on or off the field.
Growing up in the Bronx, I spent a lot of time dreaming about sports. I’d stare out my classroom window at the schoolyard where we played basketball and sandlot baseball, and think about being like my heroes. Yankees like Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, those men in pinstripes. That’s who I wanted to be—the one hitting the home runs—a sports hero in a great uniform. Back then I didn’t even know what a designer was. To me, clothes were something I was handed down. (I was the youngest of four—two brothers and a sister.) But I always loved something I got from my brother—a team jacket. I wore it everywhere. It let me dream, maybe I really could make the big catch in a game. That might have been when I started to understand how clothes allowed you to live your dreams.
I had the Polo Pony embroidered on the chest because I liked the concept of making something fashionable that was still about sport. I also wanted it to be something you could wear on or off the field.
I think my love of the sporting life began with the summers I spent going to camp on a lake in the Catskills. They were magical days, filled with tennis, swimming, basketball, and the color wars of camp tradition, a sports competition among teams of boys that took place over several days. One year, the kids chose me to be one of the team captains. It was a big deal back then. Suddenly, I found myself the leader of a bunch of boys from all different walks of life, fighting to win bragging rights for the summer. I think that’s when I started to believe in myself. I didn’t know where I was going yet, but I had the feeling I was on my way.
1955
Leaning against the fence where he played baseball in the Bronx.
1978
Jogging around the reservoir with Ricky.
1982
On the basketball court at the summer camp his kids attended.
1988
Keeping fit with gloves and a punching bag.
2017
Before he threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium.
1955
Leaning against the fence where he played baseball in the Bronx.
1978
Jogging around the reservoir with Ricky.
1982
On the basketball court at the summer camp his kids attended.
1988
Keeping fit with gloves and a punching bag.
2017
Before he threw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium.
I had a passion for something that I felt inside and was able to express it through clothes, but I didn’t go to fashion school. When I was 19 years old, I worked part-time at Brooks Brothers, while going to college at night. Then, I went to work for a well-respected tie company. When I came up with some concepts of my own, they were rejected, but then someone gave me a break. I loved the look of the wide tie, and when I was off and running, the name I put on my label was Polo. It evoked the best of the sporting life—athleticism, spirted competition, romance, international adventure, and the kind of classic style where the clothes have purpose. Ever since I got handed down that team jacket of my brother’s—and the two of us hunted down clothes in army-navy stores—I’ve loved things born of utility: uniforms, work clothes, hunting gear. They’re clothes with integrity, like my Polo shirt. I was inspired by the handsome, rugged shirts worn by the real players. Before I designed it, I remember walking into one of the big department stores in Manhattan to see what they had. Not much, as it turned out. There was a grand total of four colors. “Do these fade?” I asked the person helping me. “No, sir,” he said, “these are polyester and cotton.”
NO SWEAT
An image from the early days of Polo Sport, which, Ralph writes, came “about not only because it reflected what I saw as the beginning of a new healthy, body-conscious culture in the early ’90s but my own interest in an active life.”
Clothes that are rooted in athletics are as important to me as tweed blazers, cowboy boots, and school crests.
Clothes that are rooted in athletics are as important to me as tweed blazers, cowboy boots, and school crests.
I’ve always believed things get better with age, with some patina, so I made my Polo shirt out of a cotton that fades over time—and did it in 20 different colors. I had the Polo Pony embroidered on the chest because I liked the concept of making something fashionable that was still about sport. I also wanted it to be something you could wear on or off the field. Clothes that are rooted in athletics—rugby shirts, tennis sweaters, rowing blazers, varsity jackets—are as important to me as tweed blazers, cowboy boots, and school crests. They’re all timeless and classic pieces that I love imagining and reimagining in new ways. They’re about personal style and the feel I have for the moment. Polo Sport later came about not only because it reflected what I saw as the beginning of a new healthy, body-conscious culture in the early ’90s but my own interest in an active life—working out each day, jogging, and paying attention to diet and lifestyle. It’s the same spirit, passion, and heart that gives me such pride in the uniforms and clothes we design for the U.S. Olympic Team, the US Open, Wimbledon, the Ryder Cup, and other international competitions. Not long ago, I was invited to Yankee Stadium to throw out the first pitch before the game. Taking the mound in those fabled pinstripes, my dream I had wished for longer than any other finally came true.
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