Telfar wasn’t the only black designer to outfit the 2024 Olympic team

At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, the Nigerian team famously arrived at the opening ceremony in easy green and white tracksuits. Their actual opening ceremony uniforms didn’t arrive in time. For the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the black-owned sportswear brand Actively Black, founded by former skilled basketball player Lanny Smith, sponsored the Nigerian team, outfitting them for the games and the opening and shutting ceremonies.

This partnership continued at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the Nigerian national team will once more wear the clothes of the small Los Angeles-based sportswear brand.

“To see a black-owned brand on the same global stage as Nike and Lululemon and Adidas are making everyone take a look at us otherwise,” Smith said. New York Times“This is an important moment for us.”

The press release said the Actively Black Olympic kit “combines tradition with modernity.” The athlete uniforms feature silhouettes designed for optimal performance. In the Olympic Village, meanwhile, the delegation will wear sportswear and casual wear with “traditional” Nigerian prints in black, green and white, emblazoned with the Nigerian Olympic logo.

“Designers Jordan Jackson and Danielle McCoy drew on tradition to transform The Market into a conceptual vehicle designed to showcase the diversity and cultural nuances of Nigerian identity,” the release reads.

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The opening and shutting ceremonies also feature the classic block print of the green and white of the Nigerian flag. They are made out of Funtua cotton, named after the Nigerian state where it’s produced.

Since Actively Black began working with Team Nigeria, they haven’t been the only black brand to take part on the fun. This yr, several teams and athletes have been outfitted by black brands and designers during their Olympic journey.

Before the opening ceremony, Alaysha Johnson, a black runner on Team USA, He qualified for the Paris Olympics wearing the HMN ALNS jerseyLiberian-American designer Telfar Clemens made headlines when it was revealed that his namesake brand once more designed the official Olympic uniforms for Team Liberia, which include the Opening Ceremony uniforms and uniforms for the competing athletes. The 15-person Team Haiti delegation arrived in elegant Opening Ceremony uniforms designed by Haitian-Italian designer Stella Jean, which reimagined the colours related to their flag and paid tribute to Haitian painter Philippe Dodard.

“For these athletes, just being here is a victory,” said Jean AP Newsreferring to the proven fact that, as of 2021, Haiti has been experiencing one in every of the worst periods of instability and political unrest in modern history.

Meanwhile, the South Sudan team nearly broke the web after they arrived in black suits designed by Moses Turahirwa with more piping than the entire Seine (including individual cuts for every team member!). Their Olympic rival LeBron James he said“Those boys were clean as hell.”