{"id":193345,"date":"2022-01-19T09:07:13","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T09:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/?p=193345"},"modified":"2022-01-19T09:07:42","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T09:07:42","slug":"should-lacoste-drop-shot-novak-djokovic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/should-lacoste-drop-shot-novak-djokovic\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Lacoste drop-shot Novak Djokovic?"},"content":{"rendered":"
All press is good press, or so the saying goes, but when it comes to COVID-19 things are looked at very differently. For nearly two weeks, Serbian tennis player and world number one, Novak Djokovic\u2019s saga of trying to enter Australia, unvaccinated, to defend his Australian Open title has been running daily across every global news outlet and social media platform.<\/p>\n
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In the end, his efforts failed, and Djokovic (having taken on perhaps the only man more headstrong than he himself is, that is Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison) was ignominiously ejected from the country.<\/p>\n
Visible in every picture and video accompanying those reports is French brand Lacoste\u2019s instantly recognisable green crocodile logo.<\/strong> Even satirical cartoons that lampooned Djokovic showed him in a Lacoste branded shirt. His brand and theirs have become synonymous.<\/p>\n While brands would normally pay handsomely for global exposure, when it comes to \u201cthis\u201d type of global exposure, most would rather distance themselves. Djokovic is a controversial character. Djokovic has refused to be vaccinated, admitted to breaking Covid conventions in his home country by attending a press interview after apparently testing positive for Covid, and has claimed that a member of his team omitted to state which countries he had visited prior to travelling to Australia on his visa application. Whether you are sympathetic to Djokovic or not, the vaccine debate provokes strong reactions on both sides and most brands want to stay out of it.<\/p>\n That being said, Djokovic\u2019s anti-vax stance (to be clear, he has said that while he is opposed to taking a Covid vaccine, he is not necessarily \u201canti-vax\u201d) and questionable views on science were well known, long before the pandemic hit. Lacoste would have been aware of, for instance, his belief that you can change the properties of water through emotion, when it first signed him up in 2017<\/strong> and his views on vaccines were widely known when it renewed his contract last year until 2025.<\/p>\n Nonetheless he is one of the world\u2019s most recognised sports figures, which clearly was a draw for Lacoste. Djokovic currently has nine million followers on Twitter and 10.1 million on Instagram.<\/strong> The player first signed with Lacoste in May 2017 \u2013 a moment described by Lacoste as a \u201ccoup de Coeur\u201d (love at first sight) \u2013 after his previous contract with Uniqlo ended. Prior to that, he was signed to\u00a0adidas<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Sergio Tacchini<\/a>.<\/p>\n His Lacoste contract is said to be his most lucrative, valued at around $9 million by several American media outlets. It is worth noting that Roger\u00a0Federer\u00a0signed a 10-year $300 million endorsement\u00a0deal\u00a0with Japanese retailer\u00a0Uniqlo after it ended its relationship with Djokovic.<\/p>\n Since Djokovic had form for being controversial and difficult before the deal, Lacoste would have done its due diligence and decided he was worth the risk.<\/strong> But Lacoste wasn\u2019t to know there would be a global pandemic when it first signed with him and that his views on vaccines would become so public and so closely linked to the image of its famous crocodile. However, the risk was always evident, as fashion experts have been quick to point out.<\/p>\n \u201cDjoko: The Short Version<\/p>\n He was greatly disliked on the tour and publicly for being a jerk.<\/p>\n He hired a crackerjack PR team who cleaned up his image and swept away the jerk rep.<\/p>\n He went to Australia and proved that in fact, deep down inside, he is a jerk.<\/p>\n The End.\u201d<\/p>\n Dana Thomas, Paris based style writer and author of Fashionopolis, @DanaThomasParis, summed up the situation on Twitter.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Lacoste will now no doubt be looking at the small print in its contract with Djokovic.<\/strong> It clearly won\u2019t want to pay lots of money for negative press, nor would it want its protected brand associated with the anti-vaxxer movement and its acolytes. The situation calls to mind Fred Perry\u2019s need to distance itself from the American alt-right when the so-called Proud Boys adopted its distinctive and identifiable polo shirt, in a black and yellow colourway, as their uniform. The difference being Fred Perry didn\u2019t actually sponsor them and removed their preferred shirt from sale, while issuing a statement distancing themselves. Most would have understood that Fred Perry was simply unfortunate here.<\/p>\n