On the evening of 25 June, leading Chinese sportswear brand Anta unveiled the Chinese delegation’s official uniform for victory ceremonies at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The event was held at the restored Shougang NO.3 Blast Furnace Museum in Beijing.
Echoing the year of the dragon, the uniform, aptly named the “Champion Loong” or “Champion Dragon” uniform, is decked out with dragon-inspired details such as dragon whiskers and scales, created with traditional crafts such as embossing, patchwork, and embroidery techniques. With the traditional Chinese details, the uniform keeps a sleek and modern look, similar to what Anta did with the Genshin collaboration.
Chinese film director Zhang Yimou served as the creative consultant of the uniform to bring Chinese cultural elements of green technology such as eco-friendly recycled nylon and recycled polyester to reach the uniform’s goal of over 50% carbon reduction.
The red-and-white look also inspired the mascot for the collection, the new Olympics IP Anta Ling Loong (安踏灵龙). The dragon mascot shares the colour scheme, scales and whisker details as the uniform and appears at the event at Shougang. Several Olympic athletes also attended the event. On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “Anta reveals Paris Olympics kit” (#安踏发布巴黎奥运会装备#) reached number 12 on the Hot Search list with 28.85 million views.
Leveraging dragon elements not only shows the spirit of the year of the dragon but also broadly showcases the traditional culture and crafts of China. In the age of New Chinese Style, Anta brings the trend to the world stage with the Olympians. With the sportswear brand going “overseas” (出海) the Olympics is a great opportunity for not only the athletes and Guochao but also Anta as a brand.
