Winter Olympics since 1998 in Nagano, Japan.She has a decade’s worth of knitted red mittens, purchased every year since their debut as part of the Canadian Olympic uniform in 2010.But this year Reid says she won’t be buying anything, because after the merchandising partnership changed hands from Hudson’s Bay to Lululemon, she considers the prices too steep to justify.“They were a great, affordable way to show Canadian Olympic pride and some of the money goes to support our national team,” Reid says of her iconic mittens.“I looked at the Lululemon site and I was pretty surprised to see the prices.
I was OK with The Bay’s mittens going up to $20, but $68 for a pair is too much for me.”Reid isn’t alone. In recent days, Canadians have been voicing their displeasure online with the prices of Team Canada’s Beijing 2022 merchandise — a first under the charge of Lululemon, after the Vancouver-based athleisure giant signed a deal last year to become the exclusive Olympics outfitter of Team Canada until at least the 2028 Games.
Red mittens and Mukmuk — The unlikely success behind the 2010 Winter Olympics’ bestsellers Before its partnership expired in 2020, HBC, the parent company of Hudson’s Bay, was Team Canada’s outfitter for almost two decades, since 2006 in Turin, Italy.