From Crocodile to GOAT: Lacoste Crowns Novak Djokovic in Style

Novak Djokovic has never been one for subtlety when it comes to rewriting history. Twenty-four Grand Slam titles, the most weeks as world No. 1, a Masters 1000 record no one else can touch as his numbers alone demand a new vocabulary. On the eve of the US Open, Lacoste, his long-time partner, supplied it: they turned their iconic crocodile into a GOAT.

Unveiled with the kind of theatre you’d expect from both Djokovic and the French maison, the From a Crocodile to the GOAT capsule is a five-piece collection that includes a polo, t-shirt, tracksuit jacket, cap and trousers—each stamped with a reimagined logo that nods to the man who has outgrown the conventional definitions of greatness.

BETC Paris, the agency behind the campaign, scattered the visuals across all four surfaces where Djokovic has built his legend: grass, clay, hard and indoor courts. And the tagline does the heavy lifting, "From a Crocodile to the GOAT."

And yet, it was the white jacket that stole the spotlight. At his Fifth Avenue launch, Djokovic turned his back to the cameras to reveal an embossed world map stitched with four coloured tennis balls—green for Wimbledon, red for Roland Garros, blue for the US Open, black for the Australian Open. Above it, the words “Grand Slam Tournaments,” a quiet reminder that he has not just played on every surface, but conquered each, more than once. It was fashion doubling as a victory lap.

Lacoste didn’t stop at celebrating the man, they also celebrated the believers. On X (formerly Twitter), the brand dug out old fan tweets from as far back as 2010, where loyalists dared to call him the GOAT long before he became it.

The fans were rewarded with pieces from the collection and even cameos in the launch video, a nod to community, to foresight, to the people who recognised history in the making.

Thierry Guibert, Lacoste’s CEO, put it plainly: “Transforming our Crocodile into a GOAT today was an obvious choice to honour his legacy while staying true to René Lacoste’s heritage.” That heritage, of course, has its roots in America, where René won his first US titles and earned the nickname that defined the brand. Nearly a century later, Djokovic returns to that stage, draped in white, mapping out the sport’s modern geography on his back.

If René Lacoste invented the polo, Djokovic is reinventing the mythology. And with Lacoste’s Crocodile morphing into a GOAT, the brand is canonising one of the greatest athletes of all time.