Officially, Paris 2024 is delighted with its new partnership with Le Coq sportif, the brand that will dress the French Olympic team (from 2021), the employees of the organizing committee and the officials. But it could still fall short of expectations. Explanations.
Very few responses to the call for tenders
Three lots were offered during the call for tenders launched several months ago. Lot A concerned competition outfits (since 2012, the French Olympic Committee had ceded marketing rights to the Federations, which enabled them to come to the Olympic Games with their equipment supplier, but Paris 2024 had chosen to retain all of the rights); lot B was aimed at representation outfits (podium, village, Paris 2024 employees and volunteers); lot C was attached to the outfits of volunteers and torchbearers.
According to our information, no one has responded to lot C, the call will be restarted later. Still according to our information, the Coq sportif responded to lots A and B, Lacoste (partner of the French Olympic team until the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games) to B. However, the “big” teams such as Asics, Nike or Adidas did not respond. Inevitably a disappointment for Paris 2024…
The Rooster crows, Lacoste tenses up
Here in front of a French brand, which dressed the French Olympic team between 1912 and 1972 (and therefore during the 1924 Games in Paris), part of whose production (80% of the dyeing and the mesh) is done at Romilly-sur-Seine… The “strengths” of the Coq sportif have enabled it to outstrip Lacoste, which has passed through the Swiss fold, when analyzing quality criteria (level of commitment, vision, communication, quality of lines, etc.) for the lot B. Still according to our information, the Crocodile brand, partner of the Olympic Committee since 2013, is very critical of the choice of Paris 2024 and is even ready to sue, denouncing in particular a lack of confidentiality.
In early January, Lacoste was already moved by a survey commissioned by the Coq sportif and whose results were largely favorable to the latter, since 67% of those polled believed that the Coq sportif was their favorite brand to dress tri-color athletes at the Games from Paris ! Le Coq sportif also became a partner of Sport in France a few days ago ... "the chain of the French Olympic Committee". Paris 2024 assures, however, that there is "no flaw in the procedure".
Federations free to compete with their equipment supplier
If Paris 2024 wanted to keep all of the rights (even if it meant going to the showdown with the largest federations that felt they were losing money), it has just flip-flopped. Officially "so as not to impose his choices", he will leave the possibility for federations to wear either Coq sportif uniforms or those of their equipment supplier (as they have been doing since 2016) during Olympic competitions.
Why this change of position, especially since it is not necessarily in the interest of the Coq sportif to let athletes wear jerseys of competing brands? For some, the explanation lies in particular in the fact that the amount proposed by the Coq sportif for lot A (the one now open) would not meet the financial requirements of the organizing committee. The latter denies and maintains that “there was no question of imposing a mark on the federations. "
He also brought up to date, the solidarity fund that the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF) had tried to activate: against the possibility of wearing the attire of their own equipment supplier, the Federations paid a sum into a solidarity fund where those without a sponsor could draw. Between 2013 and 2016, however, few Federations have played the game (some paid an annual sum and then stopped, leaving the CNOSF, and ironically, Lacoste, pour into the common pot). Paris 2024 will this time impose a fixed amount. The fund will allow Federations that do not have an equipment supplier (Coq sportif will provide them with an endowment only at the Olympic Games) to purchase additional outfits for the European and World Championships ... a priori at Coq sportif.