Who is behind the mysterious Chinese brand that outfits Brazil in the Olympics?

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Peak Sport is the official supplier of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, but only 24 athletes have chosen the company.

You may have never heard of Peak Sport, a Chinese company that supplied the uniforms of the Brazil Team at the Tokyo Olympics in Japan – even though it has no commercial representation in Brazil.

More curious is that only eight years after the IPO in the Hong Kong stock exchange, in 2009, the supplier had its shares delisted (OPA) because of their low yields.

The costumes are mandatory for the Olympic Village, travel, podiums, and ceremonies. 39,000 different pieces were created for the Brazilian delegation, such as pants, shorts, shirts, tops, caps, bags, and shoes.

The Brazilian’s were not the only ones to wear the brand: teams from Slovenia, Iceland, New Zealand, Romania, and Ukraine also signed contracts with Peak Sport.

However, sports federations are free to dress or not dress athletes with individual outfitters during the Games and competitions. Therefore, only 24 out of 301 Brazilian athletes will wear the outfits of the Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC) – boxing, canoeing, weightlifting, pentathlon, rowing, table tennis and archery.

PEAK SPORT

Although it is unknown to the general Brazilian public, Peak Sport launched its first running shoes in 1989. It started its global expansion only in 2006 – nine years after having more than 6,000 official resellers in China. Ten years ago, a design and development center for footwear was created in the United States. Since then, the main focus has been on basketball teams.

This year, the international press published that the market value of the Chinese company was already US$1.4 billion. The company did not answer questions if there are plans to expand in the Brazilian market, even though the contract with BOC was signed three years ago, during the last Winter Olympic Games in South Korea, and is valid until 2024.

Previously, the official sponsor of the Brazilian delegation was the American Nike, which outfitted the team between 2012 and 2016.

Since then, in addition to the competitions in PyeongChang, the Chinese Peak Sport has provided equipment for the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, in 2019.

According to the contract, the company will maintain exclusivity for two cycles until the Paris Games, three years from now.