As the Olympic Games got underway this summer in Paris, we celebrated the moment by remembering the first time Ralph Lauren began designing off-field gear for Team USA. To do that, you have to go all the way back to the early 1990s, when a then 50-something-year-old designer was asked to outfit the team for the 1992 games, the last time both the Summer (Barcelona) and Winter (Albertville) Games were held in the same year. Ralph, of course, had been reinventing heritage sportswear as part of the Polo repertoire for years, so it made sense. But no one knew then that the collaboration would be so successful that Polo would one day become an official outfitter of Team USA, a designation the brand has held since 2008.

The process started, as it always does with Ralph, with a story. For inspiration he pored over jubilant Olympic moments captured in photographs and graphic posters from the past. The resulting collection was sporty and modern, reflecting the hard work and dedication of the Olympic competition through garments that were as sturdy and worthy as the athletes who wore them. It also spawned another idea: a new line of athleticwear, one not just for Olympians but for all of Polo’s customers. The horsey sport from which the brand took its name still set the tone, but Polo Sport, as the new capsule came to be called, embraced athleticism as an American ideal.