Russia has recently been very big on import substitution and supporting the local manufacturers. Some of it was connected to the sanctions when Russians didn’t have much choice but to buy local, but it’s also partially ideological and often people are not just encouraged but ordered to buy Russian-made products. Especially, if the government gives the money for the purchase.

Recently, this led to a crisis in the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation, when a month before the World Championships, the federation was told they can’t buy uniforms (leotards and pants) from foreign manufacturers and have to look for something local instead. The competition leotards are quite expensive (all those crystals for the WAG!) and, considering that top teams usually provide several competition and training leotards to their gymnasts, buying uniforms for the whole team can be costly and federations generally don’t have such large sums of money just lying around.

Valentina Rodionenko told Sport-Express about the issue:

“We didn’t tell anything to the gymnasts in order not to worry them. But practically a month before leaving for the competition it wasn’t clear what the guys and the girls would compete in. This has never happened before in my career. For many years, we preferred an American company, almost all the leading international gymnasts are competing in their uniforms.* The modern artistic gymnastics is so difficult that any small thing plays a role. If the clothes are even a bit uncomfortable for the gymnasts, this will definitely affect the performance. I’m not even talking about the fact that the judges evaluate the appearance and the style as well. The Russian companies just don’t have experience manufacturing the uniforms at such level. [Bying local] was definitely not an option for us”.

Rodionenko said that the federation was warned by the Ministry of Sports about having to buy uniforms made in Russia last year but this rule wasn’t enforced at the time, so the federation thought they could continue buying uniforms abroad:

“We were first warned last year. But then the situation was solved somehow. But this year, we were firmly told that the Ministry of Sports is not allowed to pay for the uniforms, it would be a direct violation of the government’s decree. We learned this about a month before leaving for Doha. We were all shocked. I don’t mind local manufacturers but I don’t understand why they need to experiment on the best gymnasts of the country fighting to qualify to the Olympics”.

In the end, the federation’s management was able to find the required 3 million rubles (about $45,000) to pay for the GK uniforms.

Currently, Russia doesn’t really have big local leo manufacturers, so switching to buy local right away would indeed present a problem. Not that the team would have to compete naked, of course, because they all were on the national team last year and have the old leotards (which were used at Euros, for example). All in all, Angelina Melnikova couldn’t have picked a better time to start a leotard company – she potentially could go big as one of the few local manufacturers of gymnastics uniforms.

*The company is GK.

Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation

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