Lacoste

Lacoste S.A. is a French company that makes sports fashion. It started in 1933 by tennis player René Lacoste and a businessman named André Gillier. The company sells clothing, footwear, sportswear, eyewear, leather goods, perfume, towels, and watches.

People around the world recognize Lacoste because of its special green crocodile logo. In November 2012, the company was bought by a Swiss family group named Maus Frères.

History

In 1923, a journalist from Boston called tennis star René Lacoste "the Crocodile" because of his strong play and a funny bet with his team captain Allan Muhr.

Later, in 1927, a friend gave Lacoste a drawing of a crocodile, and he sewed it onto his tennis shirt. In 1933, Lacoste and his business partner André Gillier began selling clothes with the crocodile logo. They made a special tennis shirt that became very famous and was one of the first clothes with a brand logo on it.

In the 1950s, a company called Izod sold Lacoste clothes in the United States, but Lacoste took back control in 1993. Another company, Le Tigre, tried to compete with Lacoste by using a tiger instead of a crocodile.

Creative direction

In 2001, French designer Christophe Lemaire joined Lacoste to make the brand look more modern and stylish. By 2005, Lacoste sold almost 50 million products in over 110 countries. Famous tennis players like Andy Roddick, John Isner, Richard Gasquet, and Stanislas Wawrinka helped make the brand more popular. Lacoste also appeared in golf events, with players like José María Olazábal and Colin Montgomerie wearing Lacoste shirts.

Lacoste worked with many companies to create different products. In 2007, Lacoste launched its own online store in the United States. In 2009, actor Hayden Christensen became the face of a new men’s fragrance.

In 2010, Felipe Oliveira Baptista became the creative director. That same year, Lacoste began making sunglasses and started its first fashion jewelry line. In 2012, a Swiss family group bought Lacoste. In 2017, tennis star Novak Djokovic became a brand ambassador. Lacoste also worked with Supreme to create special clothing collections.

From 2018 to 2023, Louise Trotter was the creative director. In 2018, Lacoste worked with the Pentland Group for footwear. By late 2022, Lacoste signed a new deal for fragrances with Interparfums.

In 2023, Pelagia Kolotouros became the new creative director. Under CEO Thierry Guibert, Lacoste changed how it sold products, focusing more on its own stores. The brand also brought back control of some product lines and started showing its collections at Paris Fashion Week again in 2024. In 2024, Lacoste made a deal with Haddad Brands to create kids’ clothing. That year, the brand also announced a new fragrance called Lacoste Original. In August 2025, Lacoste temporarily changed its famous crocodile logo to a “GOAT” logo to honor Novak Djokovic before the US Open.

Brand management

In the early 1950s, Bernard Lacoste worked with David Crystal, who owned Izod, to make Izod Lacoste clothing. These shirts became very popular with teenagers in the 1970s and 1980s. The company behind Izod had a lot of debt, so they sold their part of Lacoste to the French owners.

Starting in 2000, Lacoste brought back its own brand name and logo under a new designer, Christophe Lemaire. Today, Lacoste is once again a top brand.

Lacoste had some problems with other companies using similar crocodile logos. They had disagreements with a company in Hong Kong called Crocodile Garments and another in Singapore called Crocodile International. These disputes were settled, and the logos were changed to look different from each other. The Supreme Court of the Philippines also ruled that the logos were not confusingly similar, supporting free market free market rules.

Sponsorships

Tennis

Associations and Events

Lacoste works with big tennis events like the Paris Masters, Roland-Garros, and the Miami Open.

Professional Players

Many famous tennis players wear Lacoste clothes. Some of these players are Marc Polmans from Australia, Grigor Dimitrov from Bulgaria, and Roberto Bautista Agut from Spain. Other players include Alizé Cornet from France and Hyeon Chung from South Korea.

Retired players

Retired tennis champions who have worn Lacoste include Pablo Andujar from Spain and Julien Benneteau from France.

Golf

Lacoste also sponsors golf players like Adri Arnaus from Spain and Céline Boutier from France.

Retailers

Lacoste has many stores around the world. You can find Lacoste clothes in big department stores and special Lacoste shops. In the United Kingdom, you can buy Lacoste at places like JD Sports, KJ Beckett, and John Lewis & Partners. In the United States, stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Belk, Halls, and other shops sell Lacoste. In Canada, you can find it at Harry Rosen, Hudson's Bay, Lacoste’s own shops, and other stores. In Australia, Lacoste is sold at David Jones and Myer.

Controversies

In 2011, Lacoste was part of a report by the environmental group Greenpeace. The report said some of its suppliers in China were polluting important rivers.

Also in 2011, Lacoste was asked to remove a Palestinian artist's work from a competition. The artist had created images about Palestine joining UNESCO. Lacoste agreed to remove the artist, and the museum ended its partnership with Lacoste.

In 2020, Lacoste agreed to stop working with suppliers in the Xinjiang region.

Lacoste has also been criticized for continuing its business in Russia after that country invaded Ukraine in 2022. Some groups said this could support the Russian economy.