Toronto

[Nic Name]

Whether you're rooting for Team USA or Team Canada, their fashion statements both have roots in Toronto clothing company Roots.

Says Roots co-founder Michael Budman: ''The Olympics give athletes, and countries, credibility.'' Anytime a country receives the kind of worldwide exposure that Canada has received over the past week, it boosts the overall business community, he says.



Roots is ramping up its global expansion plans after becoming the product hit of the Games, Budman says. The privately held, 29-year-old Toronto company will expand its offerings through 131 Nordstrom stores in the USA and with QVC. It is arranging outfitting deals with U.S. and Canadian Olympic teams through 2006. It's expanding in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. And it will open its first stores in China this fall. ''The key is that America has been shown what the Roots brand is all about,'' says the U.S.-born Budman, 56.

Roots' Team USA beret is the must-have souvenir of the Games.



Fans were lined up at 4 a.m. Sunday to buy Olympic gear at Roots stores in Salt Lake City. The demand for the company's gear is ''unprecedented,'' Budman says.