A deal between Cowichan Tribes and the Hudson’s Bay Company will soon see the world-famous hand-knitted sweaters available

for the Olympics and on the shelves of the department store giant long after the last medals have been handed out.

While the chief of Cowichan Tribes is treating the news as terrific, one knitter said she believes the deal will save the heritage inherent in each hand-knitted garment.

“The younger people aren’t interested in learning how to knit because they’re going to school and trying to find jobs,” said Emily Sawyer-Smith.

But the fact the HBC wants to carry a line of the sweaters and other hand-knitted goods means years and years of work for local knitters, even some younger ones who can see where the future is taking the famous garment.

But it almost didn’t happen.

Starting in 2007, there was a grassroots campaign to have the sweaters on our Canadian athletes and as part of the Olympic clothing line.

Those dreams were crushed earlier this month when the HBC unveiled the official clothing line for the 2010 games.

But amid the pants, shirts, caps and other articles in the mix was a knitted sweater that looked eerily familiar.

While the HBC denies their sweaters are a knock-off of the local, genuine articles, the look was a little too close for comfort for some.

Cowichan Tribe’s Chief Lydia Hwitsum said she contacted HBC after it unveiled the sweater that resembled the famed Cowichan product.

“I’d put in a call to HBC last Friday to flag the issue and to indicate there was a need to work with Cowichan,” Hwitsum said.

On Tuesday afternoon the chief, her council, a few local knitters and representatives from HBC and the Vancouver Olympic Committee met in Tribes’ council chambers for a two-hour meeting.

“Out of that we basically negotiated an opportunity to introduce an authentic Cowichan knitted sweater into the Olympic experience,” said Hwitsum.

“There are still a bunch of details to be ironed out, but Cowichan Tribes is doing the work of assembling the knitters to get an idea what the productivity level could be in terms of how many sweaters we could get into the market, related to the 2010 Games.”

As well, the two sides are looking at a longer-term deal.

“HBC said it’s open to partnering with Cowichan knitters to having the Cowichan sweater, and other Cowichan knitted products, as part of their regular line of products offered in their stores.”

Indeed they did, said Mark Kinnin, vice-president of Olympics and global sourcing for the HBC.

“We haven’t signed anything yet, but we have agreed to work together and VANOC is going to support granting a licence to the Cowichans to produce official Vancouver 2010 merchandise.”

That will give the knitters the opportunity to sell and display their merchandise in the 23,000 square-foot Olympic superstore in downtown Vancouver — where it’s expected 10,000 people per day will visit during the Olympics.

“We think the Cowichan sweaters and some of the other products — such as tuques — will be a great addition,” said Kinnin.

“The Olympics has been the forum for us to get together and work on a business opportunity and I’m hoping we can have a longer-term relationship with Lydia and the Tribes in producing products for our Hudson’s Bay Company line.”

But for now, Hwitsum said everyone involved is concentrating on the short-term goals of 2010.

“We’re going to reach the highest level of productivity we can by assembling all our knitters,” said Hwitsum. “Right now, in the course of a few days, we have a list of about 45 knitters and the interesting thing is Cowichan people who are living in other First Nations communities have been calling in to say, ‘Hey, I’d like to put my name on that list.’”

The chief said the deal with HBC means much to Cowichan Tribes’ members.

“It will lift the people up to be able to see the demand and be part of meeting that demand,” she said.

“We’ve got some brilliant, talented knitters in our community that are prolific in their production and we see it as an opportunity for global exposure of the Cowichan sweater.”

Hwitsum said she expects to meet with HBC and VANOC within a month to hammer out the details of the deal.

Meanwhile, and although she hasn’t been asked to knit any of the sweaters for the Olympics, Sawyer-Smith could not hide the light in her eyes and the pride she felt.

“I definitely like the attention the sweaters are getting,” she said.

“It means so much to keep our culture and our heritage alive and I hope we keep knitting for a long time to come.”