Gallery: New Team Estonia clothing range unveiled for Paris Olympics
With just 81 days to go until the start of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, the "Team Estonia" clothing range and commemorative coin dedicated to the country's athletes, who will appear at the games, have been unveiled.
The "Team Estonia Collection," which has been created by designer Reet Aus especially for the Paris Olympics, is based on the principle of circular design. The collection features specially developed 100 percent recycled denim and Upmade certified recycled t-shirts.
Aus, who recently visited Bangladesh to observe the garment production process, explained that a completely new type of jean fabric was developed especially for Team Estonia.
"This fabric is created from 100% percent recycled fiber, of which 50 percent is production residue and 50 percent cellulose residue. The other component of the collection, the t-shirts, have been made according to the principle of industrial recycling, using leftover fabrics from the production process. The idea behind this collection is to make garments in a way that minimizes environmental impact or solves an existing problem. I'm glad that there are organizations that are thinking along the same lines as us," said Aus.
Aus also has a family connection to the Olympics – her mother Linda Roos-Himma designed a silk scarf for the 1980 Olympic sailing regatta, which took place in Tallinn. "This is the inspiration for our t-shirt. This makes designing an Olympic collection even more important to me, because the Olympics have a special place in my heart," said Aus.
Urmas Sõõrumaa, president of the Estonian Olympic Committee (EOK), stressed that reducing the environmental impact is extremely important for the Olympic movement.
"In recent years, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has stressed the importance of our ecological footprint and the need to conserve resources for the benefit of the world. Thus, the primary criterion for our clothing collection was to find a way to reuse garments. Reet Aus is well known not only in Estonia, but also around the world, for her recycling-based approach and we are very happy that she has designed this collection for us. We hope that a good Olympic image will help our athletes perform well in Paris and that our clothes and coins will be worthy of the Olympics," said Sõõrumaa.
At the unveiling on Monday, Bank of Estonia (Eesti Pank) also launched a silver collectable coin dedicated to the Estonian athletes, who will participate in the XXXIII Summer Olympics in Paris. The issuance of Olympic coins is a long-standing tradition for Bank of Estonia, which began in 1992.
The coin for Paris 2024 was designed by Liis Dvorjanski, who also created the coins for the London Summer Olympics in 2012 and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. It depicts a shimmering of light on the water and a glow in the sky, forming the silhouette of the Eiffel Tower. The image culminates in a solar chain, the source of life energy for all of us, guiding the athletes in the right destination – an Olympic medal. "I want the coin to remind athletes that the road to a medal has been paved for them," said Dvorjanski.
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Editor: Siim Boikov, Michael Cole