now lacoste-ians listen up!

Here's the deal, it seems like the only way now-a-day to tell a fake Lacoste is by looking at its model code found on the price tag.

it should starts with LXXXX XX XXX XX
Men:
L1212 - short sleeve pique
L1312 - long sleeve pique

Women:
PF168 or PF168E - short sleeve stretch pique
PF368E - classic long sleeve pique

51 - Peru factory (Central and North American market)
?? - India factory (Middle East, Asia, and some European countries)
?? - France factory (very rarely seen outside of France or western Europe)

some popular colors:

001 - white
031 - black
166 - navy
107 - yellow
240 - red
132 - green
476 - bordeaux
TO3 - flamingo
NSX - lawn green
TO1 - till blue
8LX - pearl
NXU - coastal blue
CBK - aegean blue


Size:
T3 - XS
T4 - S
T5 - M
T6 - L
T7 - XL
T8 - XXL

Thus, a Men's short sleeve pique yellow Peru made shirt in size small should read: L1212 51 107 T4

99.9-100% of the new Lacoste shirts on eBay are fakes, even though some are really good (all the design features are copied over, albeit different qualities). Another noticeable tell tale sign is the position of the crocodile, which correctly should be between the bottom button and the bottom of the placket and not horizontally to the bottom of the placket. Obviously, the buttons have to be mother of pearl. eBay sellers, even with thousands of feedbacks, will guarantee the authenticity of these fakes because they've been told from their supplier that there are flaws and/or these are not made to American standards. The only surefire way to get a real one is to fork out some real $$$ for them, go to the Lacoste outlet stores to save some $$$. 72 bucks for a shirt that most likely will never go out of style in your lifetime isn't such a bad investment. And like wine, it gets better with age. Good hunting. Lacoste.com has links for authorized online/offline retailers.