Mark another for age over youth. The Hudson's Bay Co. has won the right to dress Canada's Olympic teams for the next eight years.

The 335-year-old department store chain beat out Roots, plus 10 other companies in a bid for the chance to become Canada's clothing supplier for the 2006 Olympic Games.

Jim Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC), said of the committee's unanimous choice of The Bay: "... We're very optimistic, based on a long history and tradition that The Bay has of doing this for Canada, that they'll perform the way they have, and they'll produce a uniform that will take our breath away."

The contract comes as The Bay's fortunes are on the slide, as the department store loses business to specialty and big box stores.

"Poor Bay, who's been getting it for years, ... I think have managed to pull off a slam dunk here," marketing professor Lindsay Meredith told CTV News.

But it didn't come cheap. For the right to dress Canada's Olympians starting in 2006 in Italy, The Bay paid $100 million.

The company will also outfit the 25,000 volunteers for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

The Hudson's Bay Co. joins Bell Canada and RBC Financial Group as the third premier national partner of the Vancouver Games.

Meredith says the Olympics will help The Bay kick its grey image.

"It gets the right demographic as well and that's important. The clothes buyers in that 20 to 50 group are also the folks who watch the Olympics."

Roots was gracious in defeat. Co-founder Michael Budman wished The Bay "good luck" with the task. 

During the 1998 Nagano Games, his Toronto-based company became famous worldwide for its signature "poorboy" hat.

Roots designs made Canada's athletes models, says CTV's Todd Battis. "Even when their performance didn't make a statement, their uniform did."

Rob Moore, The Bay's vice-president of corporate communications, recognizes Roots' successful clothing campaign for the Olympics.

"What Roots was able to do with the team uniforms ... they did a very good job,'' he said. "We would expect to capture the same type of excitement both around the Olympics, and around the items that are included in the uniform package."

While it's a big loss for Roots, the retailer continues to be the Olympic outfitter of Team U.S.A. and is expected to sign with at least one other country.

The Bay, through its subsidiary Zellers, provided uniforms for the Canadian team at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. In a poll of athletes, those uniforms were voted nicest of the Games.

This won't be the first time that The Bay will dress Canada's athletes. The company was the official clothing supplier for Canadian Winter Olympic teams from 1936 to 1968.

Moore said it's too soon to say what The Bay's design for Canada's uniforms will look like, but top Canadian designers and athletes will all have a say.

With files from CTV's Todd Battis in Vancouver and the Canadian Press