Lacoste swaps its iconic crocodile logo for 10 endangered species in limited-edition line

Lacoste polo shirts have logos of endangered species, instead of the green crocodile.

The green crocodile, which is an iconic logo of the French brand Lacoste has been replaced with ten endangered animals as logos in a limited-edition line that’s been created in partnership with a nature conservation charity. The line features 1,775 polo shirts in total, which were launched on the runway during the brand’s show at the ongoing Paris Fashion Week. The logos include animals such as the Javan Rhino, Burmese Roofed Turtle, Cao Vit gibbon, California Condor and Sumatran Tiger, to name a few.

Also, interestingly, the number of shirts available for each animal is directly equal to the number of that species left in the wild, according to official statistics. The Sumatran Tiger has 350 shirts to its name and only 30 shirts have vaquita porpoises stamped on them. The line is a collaboration between Agency BETC and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

A polo shirt with a Sumatran Tiger. A polo shirt with a California Condor. A polo shirt with a Javan Rhino. A polo shirt with a Saola.

Lacoste’s creative director Felipe Oliveira Baptista also included camouflaged images of each of the endangered animals in the last ten looks in his autumn-winter collection. The crocodile logo, which has been used since 1933, has been changed for the first time in the brand’s history. However, it still features on the back of the 1,775 shirts.

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Lacoste’s collection featured a lot of botanical prints and Felipe told AFP that he had taken inspiration from the 50,000 trees the Lacoste family planted around their golf course in southwest France during the Second World War.

It was also a way of sparing local men from being sent to German forced labour camps, as forestry workers were exempt from conscription, he said.