Golden Olympic glow covers even the clothes

By LIAM DANN


Tiny sportswear company Orca was another winner from New Zealand's golden weekend at Athens.

As emails poured in from possible customers in Europe and the United States, the Auckland company's product sales manager, Jamie Hunt, said it had some big choices to make.

Orca is a world leader in sportswear for triathletes.

But to compete internationally in rowing, kayaking, swimming, cycling and running would probably stretch resources too far.

"The feedback has been huge but we are only a small company and we can't be all things to all people," Hunt said. "So the question is, what do we do next?"

Olympic wins by cyclist Sarah Ulmer and rowers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell gave Orca - the official apparel supplier to the New Zealand team - the right sort of publicity.

Hunt says approaches have been made asking Orca - which has fewer than 30 staff - to look at making gear for Olympic campaigns.

"We can't afford to buy all the top athletes in the world. To sponsor them individually is way outside our budget," he said. "Our philosophy is, let's go and get the countries."

But it was too early to say which countries were interested.

Orca was founded in the mid-1990s by former international triathlete Scott Unsworth who started out selling wetsuits from the back of his car.

Unsworth is at the Games in Athens.

Hunt said Orca had no plans to list on the sharemarket or raise new capital for a big expansion.

The plan is to keep growing incrementally, putting profits back into the business.

Orca wants stay at the high-tech end of the market in whatever sports it deals with.

It has created a swimming suit that has topped the performance of other world famous brands in independent tests.

But Hunt said going out and telling the world about the technology would have to wait until the company was big enough.

Sticking to the technical market meant it would take longer to expand the business.

"There is so many brands, and we want to be known as a brand that makes the very best products."