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MONTREAL – After lengthy renovations, management of Montreal’s downtown Adidas store planned to make a splash with its reopening Thursday. The revamped boutique was going to blend “the iconic brand styles with unique Montreal vibes,” the company promised on its website.

Well, mission somewhat accomplished.

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As Quebec’s premier weighed in on the “unacceptable” downplaying of French during the store’s relaunch and the head of the Société Saint-Jean Baptiste gave interviews outside the store calling for a boycott, there was no mistaking that Adidas had tapped into a distinctive Montreal vibe.

The language controversy erupted soon after a Journal de Montréal reporter attending a pre-opening media event Wednesday wrote on Twitter the proceedings were almost entirely in English.

The Journal’s Philippe Orfali reported that store manager Alexandre Des Roches practically apologized for speaking a little French. “I’ll say a word in French to accommodate the city of Montreal and the francophone media,” Orfali quoted Des Roches as saying. A subsequent conversation between Des Roches and a French sneaker designer was in English, the newspaper said.