That is what the British Olympic Association (BOA) and British Paralympic Association (BPA) will be hoping after launching the official scarves here tonight in association with Next, a Tier Three London 2012 sponsor.

They hope to sell at least one million of the cotton scarves, retailing at £5 ($8/€6) for a 50cm square "bandana" or £10 ($16/€12) for a larger 90cm version, with the profits all going to support British athletes.

The BOA have been searching for an item of clothing that they hope will capture the imagination in the way that the red mittens did.

Canadian organisers raised around £10 million ($16 million/€12 million) from selling 4.3million pairs of distinctive red mittens, produced by the Hudson Bay Company and which featured a white maple leaf in the heart of each palm and the Olympic Rings and Vancouver 2010 stitched on the outside.


The right for the BOA to sell the scarves came as a result of its controversial financial row last year with London 2012 which led to them being granted the rights to two items of merchandise, from which it will keep net profits.

An initial production run will see half-a-million scarves produced in India, with any subsequent orders manufactured in Turkey and Portugal.

"We would love it to be a massive success," said Andy Hunt, the chief executive of the BOA.

"Here is an item you can take to show you have gone out and supported the team.

"Imagine being in the [Olympic] Velodrome the other night if all the people there had a single item like this to wave."


The Olympics scarf has the BOA's red, white and blue logo as the centre-piece, with Paralympics GB's logo in the centre of their scarf.

The scarves are covered with several thousand miniature "icons" representing all Olympic and Paralympic sports and aspects of British life such as red telephone boxes, black cabs and double-decker buses.

There are also 900 little athlete figures to represent the 900 members of the British Olympic and Paralympic teams.

The package of each scarf contains the message that all profits from the sale will go to support the athletes, and "wear it, wave it, and help Team GB WIN with it!"

The Olympic message is signed by rower Sir Steve Redgrave, the five-time Olympic gold medallist, and the Paralympic one by Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, winner of 16 Paralympic medals, including 11 gold.

The scarves also carry the adidas logo which will allow it to be sold in other official London 2012 stores or even on the way into the Olympic Park during the Games.


The scarves are due to go on sale in Next shops in May to tie in with the start of the Olympic Torch relay and among the athletes modelling them are Keri-Anne Payne (pictured), the two-time world 10 kilometres open water champion and Olympic silver medallist. 

"We wanted something that could show visual support," added BOA commercial director Hugh Chambers.

"At Vancouver we realised how important this could be.

"We were slightly daunted about what do we do to follow the red mittens.

"It was the buzz of the Games and you had to have one."

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