mr.x
November 9th, 2005, 06:13 AM
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Tuesday, Nov 08, 2005 Email this to a friend
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The Bay unveils Olympic wear for Canadian athletes heading to Turin
full image
The Bay reveals the clothes Canadian athletes will wear to the 2006 Turin Olympics. (HBC handout)
TORONTO (CP) - The bright red and white colours are familiar enough, but shearling hats and yoga pants for Canada's Olympic athletes?
The Hudson's Bay Co., the country's oldest department store, knew it had to make a fashion statement Tuesday evening with its official launch of the designs the 2006 Canadian Olympic team will wear in Turin, Italy.
"It will remain to be seen which item (takes off with the public), " said Suzanne Timmins, fashion director at HBC. "Right now we've gotten some feedback on our trapper hat that everyone seems to love - that's the one people seem to be talking about the most."
The designs have a modern take on tradition. And the Bay played the heritage card by holding the gala unveiling of the collection in the city's Fort York Armoury.
The trapper hat, available with shearling or - for those more politically correct - faux shearling, might have been coveted by the trappers of centuries past.
It may also win favour among today's winter warriors.
The athletic womenswear - still blazing the proud colours of the Flag - is a little more body conscious and sleek than in years' past, and, dare we say, slightly sexy.
Other than the brightness of the hue, the menswear is also very urban.
Georgina Wheatcroft, a bronze medallist in curling at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, was one of the members of a focus group HBC devised for feedback on the collection.
She, like many Canadians, were a little nervous when HBC, a department store, ousted Toronto-based Roots for the Olympic clothing contract.
"All of us going in there were kinda going 'OK we are going from Roots to HBC,"' she said on her way to Winnipeg, where the Vancouver-based curler plays with the women's national curling team with hopes for the 2006 Olympics.
"Like, oh my God. You're a bit 'Oh it doesn't seem as cool' and we were all a bit frightened."
She admitted that some members of the focus group were cringing because they feared the athletic wear would reflect the traditional Bay heritage blanket of red, yellow, green and black stripes.
"But we were all hugely and pleasantly surprised."
She especially likes that the men's and women's designs are not all the same; the women's clothes "actually look feminine," she said.
People at the Olympic committee were also happily surprised at HBC's hipness.
"These guys have really stepped up to the table quickly, there were many people who were somewhat skeptical after all the excitement with our years with Roots," said Chris Rudge, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, crediting Roots for raising the profile of Olympic clothing.
"The public will pass judgment when they see these designs."
Roots took Canadian Olympics wear out of gyms and put it on the street as fashionable must-haves, as their signature poor boy hat was arguably the most coveted item at the '98 Nagano Olympics.
In March, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic organizing committee and HBC raised the eyebrows of many Canadians when they announced the partnership worth more than $100 million, which will see the Bay outfit Canada's Olympic athletes for the 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012 Games.
"HBC is making a long-term commitment to Canadian sport. They have offered us a compelling combination of cash, value in kind and marketing support," John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver organizing committee, said in an e-mail to The Canadian Press.
This collection isn't the first time HBC has been involved in outfitting elite athletes.
As Rob Moore, the vice-president responsible for the Olympic project, humbly puts it: "HBC has had some experience in this area."
In fact, those multi-stripe coats some were fearing were the official uniform of the Canadian Winter Olympic team at Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany in 1936, Squaw Valley, U.S.A. in 1960, Innsbruck, Austria in 1964 and Grenoble, France in 1968.
Also HBC, through its subsidiary Zellers, outfitted the Canadian team at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, where the Canadian uniforms were voted the nicest of the Games in a poll of athletes. Zellers is also the supplier for the Canadian team at next year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia.
While some may think Roots is licking its wounds after being dropped, the clothing company seems to have dealt with the blow. It will be outfitting the American Olympic team next year.
© The Canadian Press, 2005
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/1dff99f0-c739-4556-a982-6d0f865afa05/gn051108olympic-6.jpg
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/1dff99f0-c739-4556-a982-6d0f865afa05/gn051108olympic-8.jpg
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http://www.mytelus.com/news_images/sports/original/Olympic_clothing_turin.jpg
Tuesday, Nov 08, 2005 Email this to a friend
print this page
The Bay unveils Olympic wear for Canadian athletes heading to Turin
full image
The Bay reveals the clothes Canadian athletes will wear to the 2006 Turin Olympics. (HBC handout)
TORONTO (CP) - The bright red and white colours are familiar enough, but shearling hats and yoga pants for Canada's Olympic athletes?
The Hudson's Bay Co., the country's oldest department store, knew it had to make a fashion statement Tuesday evening with its official launch of the designs the 2006 Canadian Olympic team will wear in Turin, Italy.
"It will remain to be seen which item (takes off with the public), " said Suzanne Timmins, fashion director at HBC. "Right now we've gotten some feedback on our trapper hat that everyone seems to love - that's the one people seem to be talking about the most."
The designs have a modern take on tradition. And the Bay played the heritage card by holding the gala unveiling of the collection in the city's Fort York Armoury.
The trapper hat, available with shearling or - for those more politically correct - faux shearling, might have been coveted by the trappers of centuries past.
It may also win favour among today's winter warriors.
The athletic womenswear - still blazing the proud colours of the Flag - is a little more body conscious and sleek than in years' past, and, dare we say, slightly sexy.
Other than the brightness of the hue, the menswear is also very urban.
Georgina Wheatcroft, a bronze medallist in curling at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, was one of the members of a focus group HBC devised for feedback on the collection.
She, like many Canadians, were a little nervous when HBC, a department store, ousted Toronto-based Roots for the Olympic clothing contract.
"All of us going in there were kinda going 'OK we are going from Roots to HBC,"' she said on her way to Winnipeg, where the Vancouver-based curler plays with the women's national curling team with hopes for the 2006 Olympics.
"Like, oh my God. You're a bit 'Oh it doesn't seem as cool' and we were all a bit frightened."
She admitted that some members of the focus group were cringing because they feared the athletic wear would reflect the traditional Bay heritage blanket of red, yellow, green and black stripes.
"But we were all hugely and pleasantly surprised."
She especially likes that the men's and women's designs are not all the same; the women's clothes "actually look feminine," she said.
People at the Olympic committee were also happily surprised at HBC's hipness.
"These guys have really stepped up to the table quickly, there were many people who were somewhat skeptical after all the excitement with our years with Roots," said Chris Rudge, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, crediting Roots for raising the profile of Olympic clothing.
"The public will pass judgment when they see these designs."
Roots took Canadian Olympics wear out of gyms and put it on the street as fashionable must-haves, as their signature poor boy hat was arguably the most coveted item at the '98 Nagano Olympics.
In March, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic organizing committee and HBC raised the eyebrows of many Canadians when they announced the partnership worth more than $100 million, which will see the Bay outfit Canada's Olympic athletes for the 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012 Games.
"HBC is making a long-term commitment to Canadian sport. They have offered us a compelling combination of cash, value in kind and marketing support," John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver organizing committee, said in an e-mail to The Canadian Press.
This collection isn't the first time HBC has been involved in outfitting elite athletes.
As Rob Moore, the vice-president responsible for the Olympic project, humbly puts it: "HBC has had some experience in this area."
In fact, those multi-stripe coats some were fearing were the official uniform of the Canadian Winter Olympic team at Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany in 1936, Squaw Valley, U.S.A. in 1960, Innsbruck, Austria in 1964 and Grenoble, France in 1968.
Also HBC, through its subsidiary Zellers, outfitted the Canadian team at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, where the Canadian uniforms were voted the nicest of the Games in a poll of athletes. Zellers is also the supplier for the Canadian team at next year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia.
While some may think Roots is licking its wounds after being dropped, the clothing company seems to have dealt with the blow. It will be outfitting the American Olympic team next year.
© The Canadian Press, 2005