Descente Unveils Olympic Team Uniforms; High-Tech Swiss, Spanish and Canadian Team Uniforms to be On Display At Annual Snow Sport Industry Tradeshow.

Business/Sports Editors, Skiing & Fashion Writers

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 24, 2002

Descente North America, the premier designer of high-tech winter sports apparel for the fashion enthusiast, today announced that select styles from the Descente 2002 Olympic uniform collection will be displayed January 29 - February 2, at the upcoming SIA tradeshow in Las Vegas.

Designed by award-winning costume designer, Eiko Ishioka, for the Swiss, Canadian and Spanish Alpine teams, the uniforms are a tribute to the human body and the athlete's genome.

The collection features a variety of competition and warm-up wear, as well as delegation wear and a unique cocoon designed to assist the athlete with pre-competition meditation. Constructed from Flashstar, a new embossed bonded urethane that maintains its shape on and off of the body, the cocoon envelopes the athlete in a warm and quiet environment complete with an MP3 player and a negative ion release system. The suit is one of the first performance garments intended to address the psychological needs of the athlete and the positive effects of meditation and visualization prior to competition.

Descente applied what is known from the Karman vortex theory to introduce VORTEX technology to its jump, downhill and speed skating suits. Turbulent air disturbances are suppressed by using different patterns of precisely placed spirals on the surface of competition wear. VORTEX 1 is for skiwear, and features a surface of sunken grooves. VORTEX 2, with a raised pattern of silicone, is for speed skate wear. VORTEX 3, with its surface of rigid foil shaped like miniature stabilizing fins, provides stability at high speeds for jump suits. VORTEX 1 and 2 also provide a calculated amount of compression on certain muscle groups to stimulate maximum power.

Other notable features include the use of Descente's most environmentally friendly fabric, MORPHOTEX, in the delegation and coach insulation wear for the Swiss Olympic team. Drawing on the principles that allow the South American Morpheus butterfly to change color, MORPHOTEX uses refracted sunlight rather than dyes to produce a butterfly-like array of colors that vary as the sunlight changes.

Select styles will be on display at the Descente North America booth No. 401. For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call Stacy Tomasic at 800-999-0475 ext. 290.

About Descente

Founded in 1935, Descente is a worldwide manufacturer and designer of high-end ski and golf apparel for the athlete who values form, function and fashion. Descente produces apparel that allows for optimum performance and actively sponsors athletes and sport-related charities in an effort to support all athletes who pursue their personal athletic goals.

A wholly owned subsidiary of Osaka, Japan-based Descente Limited, Descente North America operates sales and distribution centers in Denver, Colorado, and Vancouver, B.C.