The Olympics have “turned into the latest, and perhaps largest, runway for some of the world’s biggest designers hoping to reach a new audience and extend their brands,” according to Christopher Muther of the BOSTON GLOBE. The list of "fashion luminaries showing new collections" at the London Games this week “includes Giorgio Armani, Prada, Stella McCartney, Hermes, and Ralph Lauren.” N.Y.-based market research firm PrivCo CEO Sam Hamadeh said, “It all comes down to money. Ralph Lauren will make tens of millions of dollars selling Olympic-themed merchandise. Yes, there’s also the patriotism, but it’s money.” The fashion world’s “foray into the Olympic arena can be traced back to the Canadian company Roots, which began creating uniforms for Canadian athletes in 1998” (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/25). Meanwhile, in London, Winch & Gilmour note the Egyptian Olympic Committee reportedly “chose a vendor for its athletes’ training and village wear who supplied counterfeit clothing bearing the Nike brand.” Egyptian synchronised swimmer Yomna Khallaf confirmed on Twitter that the athletes “were given fake Nike wear.” When asked by another user if the news was true, she wrote: “Yes it is. The bags for example have big nike logo in the front and the zippers are addidas.” A Nike spokesperson said, “We believe this issue with the EOC is an isolated incident” (London TELEGRAPH, 7/25).
USOC THINKING BIG: A new strategy that has its licensed products being sold in a diverse retail footprint, from Bloomingdale’s to Wal-Mart, has USOC officials thinking about a different kind of Olympic gold. “Our hope is that for the first time when an Olympics are held outside of the U.S., we will achieve $100 million in (retail) sales to help our privately funded (national governing bodies) and athletes,” said USOC Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Baird. Retail sales of $100M are considered the hallmark of a successful licensing program. If the USOC’s 35 licensees and their retailers combine to reach that goal, it will be because of a broad-based distribution plan that has a separate Team USA line in midtier and mass retailers, and top-shelf USOC apparel in stores such as Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and stores of Polo Ralph Lauren (Terry Lefton, THE DAILY).
SAY WHAT?: In Toronto, Lesley Ciarula Taylor reports bags that read, “I’m renting my flat to a fat American family” are the hot sellers of the Games thus far. Designer Toby Leigh’s set of three “ironic” souvenir totes have “proved so popular, he’s having to rush out a line of T-shirts by Friday ... to meet demand.” The bags come with two other slogans: “They’re all on steroids” and “It only took me three hours to get to work this morning” (THESTAR.com, 7/24).
