Lacoste is a French sportswear and fashion house founded in 1933 by tennis champion René Lacoste and entrepreneur André Gillier, originally under the name La Chemise Lacoste [1]. The brand’s visual identity is built around a single emblem: the green crocodile, which predates the company itself and is widely described by Lacoste as the first non-label logo to appear on a garment [2].
Design and History
The crocodile emblem originated from a nickname. In Boston in 1923, René Lacoste’s captain promised to buy him a crocodile leather suitcase he admired in a shop window if he won his next match. Lacoste lost, but the American press christened him “the crocodile” in tribute to his tenacity on the court [3]. Lacoste encouraged the nickname, asking his friend and stylist Robert George to sew a crocodile onto the white jackets he wore when arriving on court [3]. The crocodile took visual form in 1927 under the hand of Robert George, and Lacoste had it embroidered on his blazers [4].
When Lacoste founded the company in 1933, the crocodile became the brand’s commercial emblem, making Lacoste the first brand to feature a logo on its clothing [3]. The crocodile trademark was registered in France in 1933 [5]. The original design featured a highly detailed crocodile with its mouth open, facing right [6].
In 2026, Lacoste unveiled a new visual identity developed with the British agency Commission Studio [7]. The refresh drew on the brand’s archives, from the earliest creations of René Lacoste to the foundational work of Robert George, the illustrator behind the first Crocodile drawing [7]. According to Lacoste CEO Éric Vallat, the work was not a redesign but a refinement: “What we are doing today is not redesigning it, but refining how it is expressed, so it continues to feel as relevant and distinctive as it has always been” [8].
Meaning and Symbolism
The crocodile represents René Lacoste’s nickname, earned through his tenacious playing style and the 1923 bet involving a crocodile-skin suitcase [3]. Lacoste’s own heritage pages describe the crocodile as “a nickname. A lucky charm. The first non-label logo to appear on a garment. A logo that travels the world. A rallying cry” [2].
The red tongue, present in the original design, became more visible across certain expressions in the 2026 identity update, reflecting “the spirit of freedom and playfulness that defines Lacoste” [7]. The brand’s emblematic green was also adjusted to closely match its original shade, “restoring an intensity true to the brand’s history” [7].
Typography and Design
The 2026 visual identity reintroduced a pronounced presence of serif characters, historically embedded in Lacoste’s expressions. The typography was developed as a bespoke design, “distinguished by the precision of its proportions, rhythms and spacing” [7]. René Lacoste’s handwritten script was also introduced in selected brand expressions, notably within the Café Lacoste logotype [7].
The 2026 colour palette placed greater emphasis on the brand’s historic hues: green in three emblematic shades, alongside clay, echoing the clay courts of tennis, and farine, a tribute to the off-white of René Lacoste’s first blazer [7]. The previous brand identity, dating from 2011, featured a simple sans-serif wordmark with the crocodile usually centred above [9].
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