France’s Olympic Teams Get a New Look: Vintage
The New York Times
The famed sportswear brand Le Coq Sportif is hoping to reinvent itself, and its hometown, by outfitting its country’s teams at the Beijing and Paris Olympics.
ROMILLY-SUR-SEINE, France — When France’s athletes enter the Bird’s Nest stadium for the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Olympics in February, Josette Camuset will be paying close attention. It has, after all, been a long wait.
For the first time in 50 years, the French team will be dressed in outfits manufactured by Le Coq Sportif, the storied French sportswear brand created by Camuset’s husband, Roland, more than 70 years ago, transforming the local textile company set up by his father, Emile, in 1882.
In this sleepy town on the banks of the Seine, the sight on the French team’s uniforms of the company’s logo — a proud-chested cockerel — is perhaps the most potent example to date of the effort to revive a famed, but fallen, French brand that once supplied the gear of choice for tennis stars, World Cup champions and famed Tour de France cyclists.
