Just 10 years ago the world saw one of the best Olympic Games. Beijing organized a colorful and entertaining competition, and Armenian athletes looked no less bright in their kits. The Beijing kit is a strong favorite among them now.
Weightlifter Gevorg Davtyan (77kg) was one of the bronze medalists.
“I still wear our kit from Beijing Olympics. I’m trying to keep it in good condition. I won a medal in 2008, so the kit is all the more dear to me. I feel like I’m wearing that medal when I have the Beijing kit on,” said Davtyan.
“Russian company Bosco wanted to cooperate with us and I worked directly with the head of Bosco. We were always in touch and exchanged solutions, and in the end, we agreed on the final design. Everyone loved both color versions of the kit – they were bright, memorable, and most importantly, of good quality.”
“Many people in Beijing noticed how well our kit looked. Athletes from other teams approached us and asked to exchange shirts. Only teams with really good kits get that kind of offers. I exchanged only one shirt, with a French athlete, because I was so fond of our national kit I didn’t want to give it away,” said the wrestler.
“We chose to dress in Italian style – without the tie, less formally. We all wore Armenia’s national emblem on our chests. Those costumes were a product of another successful cooperation,” told Armen Grigoryan.
Armenian team was wearing the kits from Russian company Forward in London Olympics. It was the first time that the company organized an exhibition and presented the kits.
Silver medalist of London Olympics Arsen Julfalakyan recalls:
“They have no interest in Armenia, because we send only a few athletes to the Olympic Games and therefore, the order will be small. Forward did what we asked. They made the kits and adopted the colors the way we wanted,” said Rostomyan.
“It was my first Olympics as the Secretary General. I announced a tendering for the parade outfit. Can you imagine that we only had one contestant? So we dressed in classic style in London and didn’t stand out.”
Rio de Janeiro: European kit of questionable quality
Two years ago Rio de Janeiro hosted the Summer Olympics and Armenia won a gold medal after 20 years without putting a hand on the Olympic gold. We remember vividly the red kits on Artur Aleksanyan and Mihran Harutyunyan and the white kits Simon Martirosyan and Gor Minasyan wore during the awarding ceremony.
However, the athletes weren’t too happy with Kelme kits. Arsen Julfalakyan has noted that the design was fine and the colors were bright and noticeable, but the kits became unusable after just one or two washings.
Wrestler Simon Martirosyan won the silver medal in Rio. He has said that although the kits were out of order very quickly, he wasn’t very upset.
“I met a lot of athletes in dull kits in Rio. Our colors were bright and the quality wasn’t that bad. Gor Minasyan and I were wearing the white kits during the awarding ceremony. We were told to do so beforehand,” Martirosyan said.
“If you go to a country where the weather is hot, you need to wear light colors. That what conditioned our color decisions for Rio. I think the Rio kits were fine, although some people didn’t like them. There are countries that win no medals but remain in people’s memories because of the kits and the show they put up at the Olympics. We aren’t in that category, because our mentality is quite outdated,” said Hakobyan.
“Our society, including people involved in sports, is closed-off and doesn’t want to make interesting changes. There were other offers as well, but the majority didn’t approve them,” Rostomyan remarks.
The upcoming Olympic Games will take place in Tokyo, the global center of innovation.
“The name of the company is Insport. It is an Armenian brand and the designers are Armenians, although the manufacturing isn’t located in our republic. They need to calculate certain things and then buy the equipment to transfer the entire production to Armenia,” said Hrachya Rostomyan.
Gohar Nalbandyan, Hasmik Babayan