For Christina Pardy, the best part of the Winter Olympics is seeing her company’s knitwear atop the heads and on the hands of this year’s athletes.
Pardy is the founder and CEO of Sh*t That I Knit, a Boston-based knitwear and accessories company that she started in 2014. This year, STIK is an official licensee of Team USA, providing beanies and mittens featuring hand-embroidered Team USA stitching with the official U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Team logos.
“While we’re not an official outfitter of Team USA — that’s reserved for the likes of Ralph Lauren and Nike — we are a proud licensee. I like to think of us as a ‘lifestyle brand’ of Team USA,” Pardy said in an email. “Athletes can’t wear our gear while competing or training, but they have been seen wearing them throughout the Olympic Village and lounging around!”
The road to being a licensee at this year’s games started in 2018. Pardy scored a meeting with someone in merchandising at U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Properties, which runs marketing and commercial assets for the Games.
“I really had no business pitching him this idea, but he liked our beanies and I told him I could make one specifically for Team USA,” Pardy said. “I persistently followed up with my contact at USOPP via email, shared samples, and checked in. This persistence led to the biggest collaboration and accomplishment for STIK to date.”
Three years later, Sh*t That I Knit’s Team USA collection includes more than a dozen knitwear items available to fans and athletes. Pardy said that after launching the collection in October, they sent hats to current, retired and aspiring Olympians and had an “overwhelming response.”
Pardy quit her job to work on Sh*t That I Knit full time in 2015 after more than a decade of knitting for herself, friends and family. She used a Kickstarter campaign to fund the company initially.
In 2016, Pardy began outsourcing the knitwear production to a team of women in Lima, Peru. Sh*t That I Knit employs 200 women who make all of its knitwear products by hand. The company says the work enables the women to knit from home, allowing them to take care of their children and families while earning an income.
“[For] three years, the STIK team worked with our knitters in Peru to create a red, white and blue hand-embroidered Team USA beanie,” Pardy said. “Now, seeing our hats on these incredible athletes on the world’s greatest stage makes me so proud — and even a little emotional!”
