Adidas unveils the Blues’ athletics and handball outfits

While Le Coq sportif will provide the village and podium outfits and a large part of the technical equipment to the French Olympic and Paralympic teams, a handful of federations will keep their equipment supplier during the competitions, in exchange for the payment of financial compensation. This is particularly the case for the French handball and athletics teams, whose competition outfits were unveiled by Adidas this Thursday, April 18.

Blue, the jersey (or a bra for female athletes who wish) has a horizontal white band, “a band of light”, which aims to “unite all the athletes, to give them energy, a collective strength. »

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Adidas wanted to build the story of this jersey “around the vibration of Paris”, around “its lights and its districts. » The City of Lights is characterized by “solar red”, a “very solar” red color reminiscent of the Olympic flame, which we find around the word France. The twenty districts are symbolized by as many superimposed lines, forming small pyramids. “These graphics allow, in a movement, to create vibrations,” we are told at Adidas. The equipment manufacturer wanted for the first time, the design to be common to the jersey of the French athletics team and that of the handball teams. According to Adidas, the jersey is intended to be “innovative”, “in detail”. The solar red color is also found on the athletes’ shorts.

Technological innovations

In terms of technology, the equipment manufacturer wanted to offer certain advances. The new material in the Adizero range is intended, depending on the products, to be “between 20 and 40% lighter” than the current textiles of the French teams. “In athletics, this is part of the marginal gains,” says Adidas. The lighter you are, the more likely you are to win that hundredth, that centimeter that can make the difference. » On the shorts, Rheon technology aims to reduce muscle oscillation, another marginal gain thanks to better thigh support. This technique has also been used on sleeves, which hurdlers particularly like to wear. All products have been designed using recycled plastic.