Paris Olympics uniform selection highlights small designer brands – Marketplace

This story was produced by our colleagues at the BBC.

It won’t be until the official Games start that the Olympic and Paralympic champions will be crowned – but the winners we already know are the fashion labels who have already taken gold.

Shannon Savage is the co-founder of Left on Friday, a premium activewear brand making its Olympic debut.

“It’s an opportunity for us as a small brand that equates to full brainstorming,” he said.

Inside its downtown Toronto store, there are one-shoulder bikini tops in a variety of red hues — very similar to the accessories the brand created for the group. Canadian Olympic volleyball, created by Shannon.

He said: “It’s a sign of credibility that our products are on these athletes at these Games. But at the same time we’re like, ‘Here we are. People haven’t heard of us,'” and this is what our product is meant to do.’”

From Friday started six years ago and has several stores across Canada. Shannon hopes the games will introduce the brand to more people, but said the opportunity has its challenges for a small company.

“You don’t have the budgets that big brands have, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have creativity and innovation and style that stands out, or that you don’t lead the team in your own way. .”

Another brand making its Olympic debut is Cariuma, a sustainable skate shoe brand based in Brazil. Pedro Andrade is their main designer and has worked on uniforms for skateboarding teams in the Netherlands, Slovakia and Portugal.

“It’s different to see non-mainstream brands like Nike and Adidas,” he said. “So I think we can create this uniform, and I think we can bring something new, something fun.”

The fact that Olympic teams are now choosing smaller, more sustainable brands to design their equipment is a “big message” for Brazilian manufacturers, Andrade said.

“You can do something big,” he said. “You don’t have to be a very big company to create something special.”

The last Olympic Games in Tokyo had an audience of more than three billion people worldwide. This year, that number could grow even more, as more people are expected to see Olympic content on their diets. That’s after the International Olympic Committee released its rules to allow a few brands that are not official sponsors of the Olympics and Olympics to post pictures of the action on social media.

Brian Qualls is a sportswear marketing expert based in Chicago.

“I think it’s great, I think it’s a very smart move by the Olympic Committee,” he said. “It doesn’t just help the interactive products, but it will help the Games. It allows more views of these moments, and more curiosity is adjusted based on that access.”

Ryan also thinks, with the Olympics in Paris, there will be a lot of focus on fashion.

“It’s one of the most fashionable cities in the world, so why not show up in Paris in a way that feels connected to the Games, connected to culture and sports, but also connected to the city?”

If past Games are anything to go by, we know they generate millions of dollars for labels, as well as brand awareness. For starters, that’s very important.