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Olympic Fashion
Design
 DesignTex is the company that formed the Kapinua Brand which is the brand worn by the NZ
Olympic Team to Beijing. This was designed for the whole team -
all sports - for their non competitive wear. We talked with
Andy Wynne - CEO - to gain an insight into what sort of work and process goes
into designing product for such an important event.
Click here or on
the logo to go
to the Kapinua site and check out their Olympic range
www.kapinua.co.nz.
Pictured below are some of the range of great Olympic gear they
produce.
The Process
 The whole
process started in July 2007. We approached the NZ Olympic
Committee and made an application through a formal process to
clothe the athletes and management of the NZ Olympic Team. It
was all of the non competitive product and included t shirts,
singlets, walk shorts, running shorts, socks, blazer, shirts,
skirts etc. The bid was successful.
Our company
Designtex is Major Regional Initiative (MRI) and we are largely
funded by NZTE. Designtex is designed to help revitalise the
clothing industry in the Horowhenua Kapiti region. Our brand
Kapinua is an amalgamation of the names Kapiti and Horowhenua
and is just 1 year old.
The Design Pathway
Once
successful with our bid the first step was graphic design. We
started literally with a blank sheet of paper. We approached
the 3 local Iwi to design a special fern for our garments. This
was formally gifted to the NZ athletes. This was followed by an
extensive series of wearer trials. We asked members of the NZOC
to wear garments to Beijing on visits there and give feedback as
to the performance of the garments in extreme conditions. We
also worked with a committee of athletes who gave us direction
in terms of colour and style.
The trials
were extensive as we needed to use the technical textiles that
were engineered to perform in extreme conditions such as high
levels of heat and humidity.
From the
feedback we then made numerous changes to the textile
application as well as adjustments to the garments. This varied
from adjusting the style of the clothing, making sure the sizing
was uniform and making sure our athletes looked good and felt
comfortable.
 Smart Materials
We used smart
textiles applications including performance microfibres to
improve wickability and coolness. We used Merino wool as it
keeps the athlete cool when in a warm temperature and warm when
cold outside. It also has excellent anti odour and anti
bacterial properties.
Respect
and Recognition
One of the
key goals was to exceed the expectations of the people we were
working for. A key focus and purpose for us was to ensure the
garments showed both respect to our hosts and would get
recognition (and possibly support from the China crowd when
China weren't taking part). So in
addition to the fern and
black clothing we added Chinese symbols on the
 back of the
garments that told the crowd the athletes were from NZ.
Varied Volume
Logistics
We estimated
that we produced garments for around 300 people and spare
capacity of course on top of this. As you can imagine athletes
bodies vary a huge amount from discipline to discipline so we
made sure we spent alot of time getting the sizing right for the
different groups.
The NZOC did a great job handling the huge
logistics of in February ordering gear for athletes in August
while some groups were still to qualify. So that required
careful planning for every contingency.
 Olympic
Experience
The NZ
Olympic Committee were phenomenal to deal with, very
professional. They did a tremendous job with the launch of the
clothing range. It was an emotional time for us and our crew as
we saw the athletes wearing our gear on the catwalk for the
first time. It had been a long journey to get the designs
prepared and it becomes quite a personal experience when you see
it come to fruition.
What Next
Our company
has the capacity to engineer garments specifically for national
sporting groups and we designed the team gear for NZ Surf Life
Saving which they wore to the World Championships. This
was again designed to meet
their specific needs and demands. Currently our brand manager
is in Beijing making sure that all the gear is fitting well and
that any tailoring that needs done is on hand.
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