Lacoste Highlights Endangered Species in Limited-Edition Polo Shirt Line

Iconic Fashion Brand Lacoste Highlights Endangered Species in Limited-Edition Line

For the first time in nearly a century, iconic fashion brand Lacoste has bumped its unmistakable crocodile logo from a limited number of its popular polo shirts. The company is using the logo space instead to raise awareness on ten of the world’s most endangered species in a new campaign.

Unveiled during Paris Fashion Week last week, Lacoste’s fall/winter 2018 collection highlights a new partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The ten critically endangered animals include the Sumatran tiger, the Kakapo parrot, the Vaquita dolphin, the Burmese roofed turtle, the Northern sportive lemur, the Cao vit gibbon, the California condor, the Saola, the Anegada ground iguana, and the Javan rhinoceros. These animals are all critically endangered, with wild populations totaling in the hundreds or fewer per species.

The crocodile is leaving its iconic spot to 10 threatened species through a partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature,” the company wrote in an Instagram post using the hashtag #LacosteSaveOurSpecies. “The number of polos produced for each series corresponds to the remaining population sizes in the wild. By buying one of the 1775 polos, you participate in helping IUCN and Lacoste in the fight for wildlife conservation worldwide.”

The label’s autumn/winter 2018 collection featured on the Paris catwalk this week, also included a series of prints incorporating inspiration taken from the threatened species.

Scores of wildlife populations continue to plummet around the globe–from loss of habitat to climate change, poaching, and hunting, the world’s leading scientists have warned that the world’s sixth mass extinction is currently underway and may have crippling effects for biodiversity and the planet’s ecosystems.