Wayne Gretzky officially joined the Roots Athletics team this week just before leaving for Torino when he met with Roots Co-founders Michael Budman and Don Green in Toronto at Gretzky's Restaurant to launch the first stage in a major four-year collaboration.
Gretzky, who is a longtime friend of Roots, is the focus of a new apparel collection created in his honour that will hit Roots stores coast to coast next week. It is being launched now to support Hockey Canada and Canada's national hockey teams as they begin competing at the Winter Olympics in Torino.
Roots will donate a portion of proceeds from the sale of Collection items to the Wayne Gretzky Foundation, which provides less fortunate youth with the opportunity to experience the sport of hockey.
“Wayne is a natural leader of the Roots athletics team, Team Roots, and a great ambassador for our company,” says Roots Co-founder Michael Budman. “Both on and off the ice, he exemplifies the best of Canada and the Canadian and Olympic heritage of Roots. Don and I have known Wayne for a long time and he's always shown himself to be a first class individual. We worked together in 2003 when Roots was a sponsor of the bid for Vancouver to host the Olympics in 2010. In my opinion, the role that Wayne played in that campaign was critical to the success of the Vancouver bid.”
In his new role at Roots, Gretzky will take part in various Roots events and charitable endeavours in addition to appearing in advertising and other marketing material.
