French Olympic teams get a makeover. It will be very interesting for Josette Camuset to watch when France’s athletes enter the Bird’s Nest stadium in February for the start of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. It’s been a long time.
For the first time in 50 years, the French Olympic teams will be wearing clothes made by Le Coq Sportif, a well-known French sportswear brand that Camuset’s husband, Roland, started more than 70 years ago. He took over the textile business his father, Emile, started in 1882.
Seeing the logo of the company, which looks like a proud-chested cockerel on the uniforms of the French team, is the best sign yet that the company is trying to be revived. It used to be a favourite of tennis stars, World Cup winners, and famous Tour de France cyclists.
One of the owners of Le Coq Sportif says that the sign says “Let’s go,” which is true.
Beausire, a Franco-Swiss businessman, is the most recent person to try to bring back a company that hasn’t been as popular as it used to be since the 1950s. For the company that bought the almost-bankrupt Beausire brand in 2005, Airesis bought more than just a brand. It was buying the memory of a French store.
When sports became more professional, Le Coq Sportif had an unusually high profile. Before the Camusets lost control of the company they had built, Le Coq Sportif had a high profile. They made the first yellow jersey worn by the winner of the Tour de France race in 1951. That’s what it looked like on Arthur Ashe when he won Wimbledon in 1975, and on Yannick Noah when he won Wimbledon eight years later. Great Dutch soccer team Ajax Amsterdam wore Le Coq Sportif in the early 1970s, and Diego Maradona wore the brand’s cockerel on his chest when he led Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup.
