100 YEARS OF CHAMPION

5/6/2019

100 years and counting. Champion has been around since 1919, an entire century. Their name is synonymous with quality and athletic heritage. Many of us grew up wearing their products and still wear them to this day. From sports arena to urban cafe, Champion was at the forefront of bringing traditional sportswear to the fashion scene.

From sports to pop culture, this brand has done it all.

It all started back in Rochester, New York as a humble family business. Bill and Abe Feinbloom began selling underwear, sweaters and other knitwear alongside their father, eventually taking over the business and manufacturing heavy knit sweaters under the name: Champion Knitwear Mills.

Over the years, personalized garments have remained a core component of the Champion DNA. Walk into any university bookstore and you’re almost guaranteed to find Champion on the tag of the school apparel. This is all thanks to Bill Feinbloom and the revolutionary flocking process he invented, depositing small fibre particles onto a garment to form custom designsa major game-changer for the industry, enabling them to mass produce.

Having experienced so much success on campus, it only made sense to branch out further into retail, designing athleticwear for all, just in time for the personal fitness boom. Through constant innovation, the Champion brand remains just as relevant as ever.

In honour of their 100 years of existence, this year Champion is celebrating the one thing their brand has always been aboutthe team. Team spirit. Teamwork. Helping people come together. As Jon Ram, Group President, Global Activewear, Hanesbrands Inc. put it, “Now is the time to look ahead and celebrate how teams today have the power to change the world for the better, and how we assist in enabling them.”