FORTUNE -- The Lacoste crocodile logo originated with a dead
alligator.
René Lacoste, the brand's founder and a tennis star circa
1925, was walking the streets of Boston when he became transfixed by an
alligator-skin suitcase in a store window. The French Davis Cup team
captain promised he would buy Lacoste the bag if he won an upcoming
match. He didn't win, but the story and his fierce play earned him the
nickname "the Crocodile" in the press, which apparently couldn't keep
its reptiles straight. In 1933 he put the logo on short-sleeved tennis
shirts, which eventually replaced the standard long-sleeved ones. Today
the preppy Parisian fashion house, which just revamped its flagship
Fifth Avenue store, is launching a marketing blitz to reconnect the
brand with Lacoste's legacy.
--Anne VanderMey
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