Lacoste: The Green Crocodile
By now, you must be truly familiar with Lacoste as a brand. It is unique because it has the interesting green crocodile logo. The apparel company sells shirts, high-end clothing, perfume, footwear, leather goods, eyewear, tennis shirts, and watches. In the past years, the brand even included a home line of towels and beddings.
The company has its headquarters in Paris, France. The main production facility is currently located at Troyes, France. The brand delegates production of offshore clothing to various factories in more than 12 nations globally, including those in Peru, Indonesia, Italy, Romania, and India.
Brief History
La Chemise Lacoste was founded by Rene Lacoste in 1933 along with his business partner Andre Gillier, owner and company president of the biggest French knitwear maker at that time. The then startup firm started to produce revolutionary tennis shirts that Rene had designed for himself. The shirts claim to have a brand name to appear outside a clothing article. The crocodile logo has been embroidered on the shirts' chest.
It was logical and normal for Lacoste to produce other sports shirts particularly those for sailing and golf. It was in 1951 when the firm expanded its tennis white offerings to introduce coloured shirts. The following year, exportation to the US was started. Lacoste was advertised as the 'competent sportsman's status symbol.' It influenced clothing choices for the upper-class sportsmen.
Bernard Lacoste, Rene's son, took over the company's management in 1963. Under his helm, Lacoste as a brand grew significantly. It peaked at its popularity across the US in the later part of the 1970s. During the 1980s, Lacoste became the signature preppy wardrobe. The company by that time also started introducing other products within several other Lacoste lines like shorts, tennis shoes, perfume, watches, sunglasses, and different leather goods.
Brand Evolution
Lacoste partnered with Izod in the US from the 1950s to the 1980s. The partnership rolled out clothing products bearing the Izod Lacoste name, which sold items exclusively in the country. In 1993, when the partnership was terminated, Lacoste regained its exclusive rights to distribute its shirts across the US under its own brand name.
Competition was inevitable. Among the most noteworthy was Le Tigre Clothing, which was founded in 1977 to directly challenge Lacoste's supremacy. The competitor was established to specifically compete in the US shirt distribution market. It sold similar arrays of apparel. What was well known about Le Tigre was that it also used embroidered logo at the chest area of the shirts. However, it used tiger to rival Lacoste's crocodile.
The company even had a long-standing legal dispute over its logo with Crocodiles Garments, which also used a crocodile logo. The difference between the two logos was very slight. Lacoste used a crocodile that faces to the right, while Crocodile Garments used a crocodile emblem that faces the left. To settle the dispute, Crocodile Garments was made to change its brand logo so that its crocodile's tail would appear more vertical. There would also be more scales in the competitor's crocodile logo.
The 21st century has been good for the brand. The popularity of Lacoste further climbed when the company employed France-based Christophe Lemaire to design more upscale and modern looking shirts. In 2005 alone, the brand sold a record 50 million products across more than 110 nations globally. The visibility has been bolstered through the formal endorsements of several young and popular tennis players including France's Richard Gasquet, the US' Andy Roddick, and Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka, an Olympic Games gold medalist.
Due to the challenges of the times, Lacoste entered into various deals to further improve its foothold in the fashion industry. It started to diversify. In 2006, the company started distributing licenses to distribute its trademark products. Pentland Brands got the exclusive global license to manufacture and sell Lacoste footwear; Devanlay was awarded the rights to license global clothing; Samsonite was authorized to produce and sell bags and leather goods worldwide, while Procter & Gamble started owning an exclusive license for Lacoste's fragrance.
Classic Lacoste
The brand classic Lacoste has always been known for its unique style and ethnicity. The brand has been in the industry for many years and has strongly held its foothold in the garments and fashion sector. The polo shirts in the classic Lacoste brand are simply exquisite and bright. Variety and creativity are constantly introduced to help make the shirts always interesting. Lacoste polo shirts have been well known among the youth because of a fashion style that never gets out of fashion.
Lacoste classic polo shirts are multi-purpose. They could be used as sportswear and casual wears for party and even formal occasions. The shirts suit every style and need. The quality is commensurate of the tag prices.
The Footwear Business
Lacoste has diversified from being just a clothing brand into a maker of different products, including footwear items. The company has its own trainer collection in different styles. In the pump category, Lacoste has different colours of sports shoes. The materials used are of premium quality, making the products truly comforting and relaxing, a must for usually stressed professionals and athletes.
'Save Your Logo'
Lacoste strives to be socially responsible in many ways. The brand became the first ever international brand that supports the 'Save Your Logo' campaign, which was launched in October 2008 by the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
For more than 75 years now, Lacoste has been using its original green crocodile logo. Through the campaign, the company commits to support various significant and selected projects that would help protect or safeguard endangered alligator, crocodile, gavial, or camian species, which when totally lost could endanger the overall biological balance of natural habitats. Lacoste is obviously the international brand that is clearly associated with the animal.
The action plans related to the campaign are aimed to help conserve natural biodiversity. The participation would also help combat the disappearance of the species, particularly of alligators in China and of crocodiles or gavials in the Amazon's Orinoco River.