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.1, 2 It removed the crocodile from its polo shirts.3 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.4, 5 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.1
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.2, 6 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.2, 3, 6, 7
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.4 Only 30 polos were made for the Vaquita, the smallest porpoise on the planet, then estimated at thirty surviving individuals.5 67 polos were produced for the Javan Rhino, 50 for the Northern Sportive Lemur, 40 for the Burmese Roofed Turtle, and so on.3, 5 The total of 1,775 polos corresponded to the combined estimated populations across all ten species at the time of production.5
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 1933.2 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.6, 8 The polos sold through quickly.1, 6 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.3, 6
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 within a three-year partnership.1, 6
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
Written with AI assistance, edited by a human. Find out more about our Use of AI.
1. Dezeen, Ali Morris, "Lacoste replaces crocodile logo with endangered species for limited-edition polos", 2 March 2018, off whitelist and listed in the article's sources, for the polos having been launched during the brand's runway show at Paris Fashion Week on 1 March 2018 and having sold out immediately, for BETC having initiated a change of the logo for the first time in the brand's history, for the crocodile described as displayed on the brand's polos for the past 85 years, and for the polos marking the beginning of a three-year partnership between Lacoste and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. https://www.dezeen.com/2018/03/02/lacoste-crocodile-logo-endangered-species-limited-edition-polo-shirts-fashion-design/
2. Wikipedia, "Lacoste", "International Union for Conservation of Nature" and "BETC", encyclopaedic reference, consulted on 25 September 2026, for the nickname "the Crocodile" given to René Lacoste by an American journalist from Boston in 1923, for the crocodile drawn by his friend Robert George and embroidered in 1927 on the white blazer Lacoste wore before every match, for Lacoste having begun in 1933 to brand clothing as La Chemise Lacoste with André Gillier, producing the polo with the crocodile embroidered on the chest, for the IUCN as an international organisation working in nature conservation and best known for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and for BETC as a French advertising agency in Paris, part of the Havas group, that counts Lacoste among its clients. None of the three articles mentions the Save Our Species edition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacoste https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Union_for_Conservation_of_Nature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BETC
3. Creative Review, Eliza Williams, "Lacoste replaces crocodile logo for limited edition range", 1 March 2018, for the edition as the first time a Lacoste product had been released without the crocodile logo since it came into use 85 years earlier, for BETC Paris as the agency behind the campaign, with Rémi Babinet as chief creative officer and Antoine Choque as creative director, and for the polos offered online at lacoste.com; and Creative Review, "Lacoste's Save Our Species by BETC", unsigned, 1 April 2019, for the 1,775 polos tallying with the number of each animal estimated by IUCN species experts to be left in the wild, among them 40 Burmese roofed turtles and 67 Javan rhinos, for the shirts having been available exclusively online, having sold out in 24 hours and each having helped to support the IUCN programme, and for the project's Best in Book award in The Annual 2019. The 2018 article prints the total as 1,175, a misprint for the 1,775 given everywhere else; neither article mentions a sale through Lacoste boutiques in Paris. https://www.creativereview.co.uk/lacoste-replaces-crocodile-logo/ https://www.creativereview.co.uk/lacostes-save-our-species-by-betc/
4. Campaign, Oliver McAteer, "Lacoste's crocodile swapped with endangered species for BETC Paris campaign", 1 March 2018, for the 1,775 polo shirts featuring ten threatened species, among them the Javan rhino, the Burmese roofed turtle and the kakapo, made with BETC Paris and the IUCN and unveiled during Paris Fashion Week, and for the number of polos produced corresponding to the estimated number of specimens of each species left in the world. The UK page sits behind a sign-in; the same article was read on the Campaign US edition, given as the second URL. https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/lacostes-crocodile-swapped-endangered-species-betc-paris-campaign/1458404 https://www.campaignlive.com/article/lacostes-crocodile-swapped-endangered-species-betc-paris-campaign/1458404
5. Live Science, Stephanie Pappas, "10 Species That Are in So Much Danger They'll Be Featured on Limited-Edition Shirts", 6 March 2018, off whitelist and used for corroboration only, for the ten species and their shirt counts, the saola 250, the Sumatran tiger 350, the Anegada ground iguana 450, the California condor 231, the kakapo 157, the Cao-vit gibbon 150, the Javan rhino 67, the northern sportive lemur 50, the Burmese roofed turtle 40 and the vaquita 30, which together make 1,775, and for the number of shirts for each species corresponding to the best estimates of the number of animals of that species still living in the wild. The note does not cover the description of the vaquita as the smallest porpoise. https://www.livescience.com/61936-lacoste-endangered-species.html
6. IUCN Save Our Species, three pages consulted on 25 September 2026: the programme's home page, for Save Our Species as an initiative that supports science-based conservation action to save threatened species from extinction; "Lacoste x IUCN SOS", an undated initiative page, for the limited-edition polos having sold out within 24 hours, spread virally on social media and reached mainstream press coverage within days, for the ten Cannes Lions awards the campaign won, and for all profits having supported IUCN conservation work; and "From Awareness to Action: Lacoste's Support for Species Conservation Gets Real", 28 September 2018, for the 3-year partnership IUCN Save Our Species launched with Lacoste in February 2018, for the first related call for proposals shifting the attention to action on the ground, and for Lacoste developing a follow-up for Spring 2019. Lacoste's own corporate newsroom index was consulted on the same date; its archive reaches back to 2018 but carries no release on the edition, so the partner's pages stand as the institutional record here. None of these pages describes a short film or its release through the IUCN newsroom. https://iucnsos.org/ https://iucnsos.org/initiative/lacoste-x-iucn-sos/ https://iucnsos.org/from-awareness-to-action-lacostes-support-for-species-conservation-gets-real/ https://corporate.lacoste.com/lacoste-news/
7. Creative Review, Eliza Williams, "Lacoste releases first ever brand TV spot", 7 February 2014, for BETC Paris having created Lacoste's first brand television commercial and with it the new tagline "Life is a Beautiful Sport". https://www.creativereview.co.uk/lacoste-releases-first-ever-brand-tv-spot/
8. Brand New, Armin Vit, "Lacoste Endangered Species", 2 March 2018, off whitelist and listed in the article's sources, a short "Linked" post with an animated image of the edition, for the story having been taken up by the design press in the days after the launch; the text beyond the image is behind a subscription and was not read. https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/lacoste_endangered_species.php
