What animal is the Lacoste logo?

The animal in the Lacoste logo is a crocodile.

The emblem comes from René Lacoste, the French tennis champion whose fierce, persistent playing style earned him the nickname “the Crocodile.” In the 1920s, artist and friend Robert George drew a crocodile for Lacoste, who had the image embroidered on clothing he wore at matches.

When Lacoste founded the clothing company with André Gillier in 1933, the crocodile became a permanent chest emblem on its tennis shirts. It is often casually called an alligator, especially because the early nickname was sometimes reported in English as “The Alligator,” but Lacoste’s established brand symbol is a crocodile.

The logo was unusually prominent for its era: it helped make Lacoste one of the earliest clothing brands to place a visible emblem directly on the outside of a garment. A separate crocodile-marked rival, Crocodile Garments, later led to trademark disputes in several Asian markets.