On Thursday, Nike unveiled its new summer apparel line in Paris, the Blueprint Pack, which offered an exclusive sneak peek at the attire Nike-sponsored countries will wear on the track at the 2024 Paris Olympics. In my opinion, Athletics Canada and Nike hit it out of the park with the Team Canada singlet.
I mean, take a look for yourself at the men’s speed suit.
This singlet is a smooth blend of the vintage red-and-white Beijing 2008 Team Canada Nike kit and the more recent Nike Vapor striped black, white and red singlet used for Tokyo 2020. Big kudos to Athletics Canada and Nike for moving away from black and toward the traditional red and white national colours.
We are not sold on the arm and calf sleeves, but what we can already picture is Andre De Grasse and Marco Arop staring down the camera in these as they walk off the track in Paris after winning their 200m and 800m heats, respectively.
Nike has been the brand sponsor of Athletics Canada at the Summer Olympics since Athens 2004. Lululemon is the official outfitter of the Canadian Olympic Team in Paris, and their opening ceremony uniforms will be unveiled on Tuesday, April 16.
Only two Canadian athletes have been named to the Olympic team so far: marathoners Cam Levins and Malindi Elmore. Several more athletes will be named to the Canadian team for the marathon, 10,000m and race walking events before May 31, with Athletics Canada selecting the full team after the Bell Canadian Olympic Trials in late June.
Nike also unveiled the Team USA and Kenya kits for Paris, which did not receive the same praise.
At first glance, many track and field fans critiqued the Team USA MS Paint-style designs and Comic Sans font, but a few U.S. athletes quickly pointed out the lack of coverage on the women’s bottoms. Some comments compared the bottoms to Sacha Baron Cohen’s bathing suit from the movie Borat, while others said the Team USA kit was a spitting image of the uniform Team Great Britain wore in Tokyo.
Let us know what you think of them on social media!
