Marie Routhier

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Marie Routhier is the owner and designer of IQ Sportswear Inc., a Newfoundland . She has been nicknamed “Queen of Spandex” and “Designer of Champions”.

A descent of Adolphe-Basile Routhier, who wrote the original French lyrics to "O Canada", she grew up in a poor, single mom family. At eleven years old, she learned to sew her own skating costumes. Then she moved onto formal and bridal fashion design, until she lost interest and after she suffered an accident.

She returned to her original love of spandex costumes and moved to Newfoundland. At 24 years old, her firm IQ Sportswear Inc. had clients including pro wrestlers, champion bodybuilders, and some Olympic athletes and medalists. It became the official costumer of Synchro Swim Ontario. One year later, the national synchronized swimming team sported Routhiers’ designs at Pan Am Games, where they captured the silver medal.

Routhier created the new "Unbashedly Canadian" line of maple leaf / Canadian Flag theme swimwear. She cited the scarcity of Canadian-themed fashion as her inspiration, contrasting it with the ease of availability of clothing featuring the Union Jack or Stars and Stripes. Despite its popularity, the "Unbashedly Canadian" line was discontinued on December 31, 2004, to support Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams's fight against Prime Minister Paul Martin over the issue of resource royalties. Williams had removed the Canadian flag from all Newfoundland government buildings.

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