An emblem set aside for the first time
For Paris Fashion Week in March 2018, Lacoste did something the Maison had never done since René Lacoste embroidered his nickname onto a tennis blazer. It removed the crocodile from its polo shirts. The 1,775-piece limited edition replaced the embroidered emblem with stylised silhouettes of ten of the world's most endangered species, from the Vaquita and the California Condor to the Anegada Ground Iguana and the Cao-vit Gibbon. For a brand whose visual identity had been built around a single graphic mark for eighty-five years, the gesture amounted to a deliberate withdrawal of the emblem in order to make a wider point.
The capsule was developed in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) under its "Save Our Species" programme, a global initiative to fund the protection of threatened wildlife. The campaign was conceived by Paris agency BETC, the long-standing creative partner behind Lacoste's "Life is a Beautiful Sport" platform, and the polos were sold through Lacoste boutiques in Paris and online, with proceeds supporting field conservation projects.
Production matched to population
The most precise editorial decision of the project sat in the production line. Each polo was produced in a quantity that matched the remaining population of the depicted species in the wild. Only 30 polos were made for the Vaquita, the smallest porpoise on the planet, then estimated at thirty surviving individuals. 67 polos were produced for the Javan Rhino, 157 for the Northern Sportive Lemur, 231 for the Burmese Roofed Turtle, and so on. The total of 1,775 polos corresponded to the combined estimated populations across all ten species at the time of production.
This formal device turned the limited edition into a counting exercise. Each garment, identified with a unique serial number, stood in for a single living animal. The strategy collapsed the distance between communication and biology and gave a precise, almost forensic register to a discipline that often relies on persuasion. By keeping the design otherwise unchanged, including the Lacoste tag, the green-and-white piqué cotton and the silhouette of the L.12.12 polo, the campaign let the substitution carry the entire weight of the message.
BETC's editorial logic
BETC framed the project as a logical extension of the brand's promise rather than a one-off charitable initiative. The agency's argument was that Lacoste's visual identity rests on the crocodile as a sign of a living animal, an emblem stitched in a moment of personal nickname-giving in the 1920s and elevated to a global symbol after 1933. Removing the crocodile to make room for animals at risk of disappearing from the wild was therefore positioned as a coherent extension of the same logic, in which the Maison briefly lent the most valuable surface of its product to a roster of species that did not have the same visibility.
The communications plan was kept compact. A short film and a small number of still images were released through Lacoste's social channels and the IUCN newsroom, with subsequent earned coverage carrying the story across design and lifestyle press. The polos sold through quickly. The campaign was widely cited in industry award rounds the following season and became a reference point in conversations about how a heritage brand could put its core mark to use without diluting it.
A measured precedent
For Lacoste the campaign sat alongside other long-form commitments to environmental and social work, but it stood apart in formal terms. Where most cause-led communication adds a layer to a brand identity, Save Our Species removed the layer the brand was best known for. The decision was reversible by design. The polos were a closed run, the embroidered crocodile returned to all other production, and the everyday assortment carried on without disruption. The boldness of the gesture was therefore tied to its scarcity, both in the number of pieces and in the temporary nature of the substitution.
The campaign's editorial structure also offered a model for how a brand could surface a partnership with a non-commercial organisation without absorbing it. IUCN retained its name, its language and its scientific framing throughout the project. Lacoste lent the surface of the polo and the discipline of its production line. The two organisations published their roles clearly and parted at the end of the run.
Looking back from the late 2010s into the following decade, Save Our Species sat at an interesting point in the shift toward purpose-led marketing. The campaign was widely admired and rarely imitated, perhaps because the precondition for the gesture was a single, instantly recognised emblem at the centre of the brand. Few houses could substitute their core mark without confusion, which made Lacoste's willingness to do so the most demanding part of the project. The result remains one of the most cited examples of how a heritage logo can be put to deliberate, time-bound editorial use.
Source: Lacoste Youtube
