Lacoste x Save Our Species
Lacoste has announced a new limited edition collection, and the whole thing is for a very good cause.
Lacoste has swapped its distinctive crocodile logo for one of 10 threatened animal species on a series of limited-edition polo shirts, designed to bring attention to the global state of biodiversity.
In partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the French tennis brand released 10 different shirts replacing the iconic crocodile logo, with endangered species, including the vaquita (a.k.a Gulf of California porpoise), the Burmese roofed turtle, the Northern sportive lemur, the Sumatran tiger, and the kakapo, among others.
The final twist is that Lacoste only made as many polos as there are animals of a specific species left in the wild. So, that means that for the species listed above, there are 30 vaquita polos, 40 Burmese roofed turtles, 50 northern sportive lemurs, 250 Sumatran tigers, and 157 kakapo polos.
The limited-edition Lacoste x Save Our Species polo shirts were launched during the brand’s runway show at Paris Fashion Week on 1 March 2018 and sold out immediately. The money from the polo goes to help Lacoste and the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) fight for wildlife conservation worldwide.
IUCN also suggests you help spread the word by using the #LacosteSaveOurSpecies hashtag on social media or get involved with the Save Our Species campaign.
“Today, the Lacoste logo still symbolizes the will and commitment the brand invests into each action it undertakes,” IUCN said in a news release. “Taking the capsule collection from concept to launch has been achieved in half the time it usually requires for such a project and testifies to the dynamism which businesses like Lacoste can bring to the global extinction threat: a universal challenge which many agree is of utmost urgency to environmental sustainability.”
“The Lacoste crocodile is one of the world’s most iconic logos, proudly displayed on the brand’s famous polos for the past 85 years,” said the Lacoste in a statement. “For the first time in the brand’s history, BETC has initiated a change of the logo.”
Lacoste and BETC ( French advertising agency that pitched the idea) worked closely with IUCN’s experts to define and select ten threatened species, whose animals have been designed by the Lacoste studio to create the logos, adopting exactly the same embroidery approach as the historic Crocodile,” it continued.
The Lacoste x Save Our Species polo shirts mark the beginning of a three-year partnership between the brand and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
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