Why Lacoste turned its iconic crocodile logo into a goat

The Lacoste crocodile logo was made in honor of founder René Lacoste’s nickname as a tennis player, and the French apparel brand’s codes prohibits it from being messed with. For the U.S. Open, though, Lacoste is making an exception. For a five-piece capsule collection for Novak Djokovic, the green embroidered crocodile logo has been replaced with a goat.

The Paris-born Lacoste, known as “le Crocodile,” won 10 major titles and was the first foreign player to win the U.S. championship twice, in 1926 and 1927. After hanging up the racket, he founded an apparel company that embroidered a crocodile on its polos. It caught on. The company has grown over the last century—in 2024, Lacoste had $3 billion in revenue, and increased sales 8% from 2023.

In a 1973 interview with the Associated Press, Lacoste said he didn’t understand the logo’s popularity, but he wondered if it might have to do with a crocodile not coming across as friendly.

“There are kinds of things that just don’t have any good explanation,” he said. “I suppose you could say that if it had been a really nice animal, something sympathetic, then maybe nothing would have happened.”

So what about a goat?

Lacoste announced their new capsule in time for the U.S. Open to pay tribute to Djokovic, a Lacoste brand ambassador who it says is the greatest of all time, or GOAT. Though the animal is more cuddly than a crocodile, the meaning behind the goat is the same as the meaning behind Lacoste’s nickname as a player. It’s about tenacity, winning, and on-court excellence.

Who’s a GOAT?

The greatest-of-all-time acronym has an entry on Urban Dictionary as far back as 2010 that names Jerry Rice, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Willie Mays, Pelé, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods the GOATs of their sports, but the term has since crossed over to the mainstream. Now it’s the logo on a polo, T-shirt, tracksuit, jacket, cap, and trousers to honor Djokovic, who with 24 Grand Slam titles to his name holds the record for male players.

“Novak Djokovic has been part of the Lacoste family for over eight years,” Lacoste CEO Thierry Guibert said in a statement. “Together, we have shared an exceptional period, during which he won 12 Grand Slam titles—half of his career total. Beyond the extraordinary player, his tenacity, mindset and values have contributed to elevating and amplifying the brand.”

The designers behind Lacoste’s goat logo managed to reinterpret visual elements from the crocodile mark for the new emblem. The goat looks up and is facing right, giving it a similar sense of direction as the crocodile mark, and the tiny triangles that give the crocodile the look of a textured, scaly back are used to decorate the goat’s chest. Lacoste previously replaced its crocodiles with 10 threatened animals for the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2018.

“This initiative reflects our ability to reinvent our codes while staying true to René Lacoste’s heritage.” Guibert said.

Like Nike turning its Swoosh on its head for soccer jerseys, Lacoste’s goat logo is an example of breaking brand guidelines to make a larger point. For Lacoste, that point is Djokovic’s icon status. Promotional material for the collection use the logos like emoji to write out the copy “From a crocodile to the goat.”

Djokovic is an athlete worth breaking brand guidelines for, and Lacoste managed to pull it off in a way that’s memorable and fun. This a limited-run, once-in-a-century rebrand for a one-in-a-century athlete.