And for all of you "MUST BE MADE IN USA" hypocrites I presume you will be equally insistent that all the USA athletes should be made to wear spikes that are actually made in the USA.
You're comparing apples to bricks. Spikes are for performance, the opening ceremony uniform is a nonfunctional item worn for the look of it and demonstration of patriotism.
Jingoism is often mistaken for patriotism. There's no reason our uniforms need to be made in American. Balance of trade is an important factor also. Wearing a flag on your lapel does not make you a patriot. Neither does wearing an American-made piece of clothing. Serve in AmeriCorps (nee VISTA); that's patriotism.
Jingoism is often mistaken for patriotism. There's no reason our uniforms need to be made in American. Balance of trade is an important factor also. Wearing a flag on your lapel does not make you a patriot. Neither does wearing an American-made piece of clothing. Serve in AmeriCorps (nee VISTA); that's patriotism.
Yes. Indeed.
It's VERY hard to imagine an issue of less real consequence than this one.
It's kind of a moot point now anyway, for the American situation at least, with USOC now announcing that they and their supplier, the Lauren company, have agreed to use domestic sources only beginning with the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. (Lauren has the opening games uniform supplier contract to USOC through 2020). They explained that it's too late to change for London.
Hopefully it will now come off the political parties' platform planks as an election year talking point. They can find something ELSE to jump on to prove that they're a more American candidate than the person across the aisle.
The American bigwigs used to supply American athletes with something to wear in the opening ceremonies that gave an image of something uniquely American... like cowboy hats. I thought the cowboy hats in the opening ceremonies looked a little stupid... but okay. Bermuda has their Bermuda shorts. Which brings us to Australia.... what's available domestically in Australia that looks distinctly Australian? Australian bush hats? Something that Crocodile Dundee would wear? Or maybe those uniform things that Steve Irwin used to wear on his TV show?
The Mongolians used to wear some interesting things in the opening ceremonies too, that looked like something out of Genghis Khan.
Jingoism is often mistaken for patriotism. There's no reason our uniforms need to be made in American. Balance of trade is an important factor also. Wearing a flag on your lapel does not make you a patriot. Neither does wearing an American-made piece of clothing. Serve in AmeriCorps (nee VISTA); that's patriotism.
All valid points -- but if the position is that the clothes don't matter, be consistent and don't bother to have the team wearing $1000+ outfits, and don't bother to attempt to "look American".
What they're doing is like some dude who wants to impress a hot date so he borrows his uncle's BMW instead of driving his own Ford. Then when his friends rib him about his scheme and threaten to spill the beans, he says the car doesn't matter, it's the man that counts. What? Then why the hell did he front in the BMW in the first place?
Jingoism is often mistaken for patriotism. There's no reason our uniforms need to be made in American. Balance of trade is an important factor also. Wearing a flag on your lapel does not make you a patriot. Neither does wearing an American-made piece of clothing. Serve in AmeriCorps (nee VISTA); that's patriotism.
Yes. Indeed.
It's VERY hard to imagine an issue of less real consequence than this one.
Not true.
Its symbolic of work being shipped overseas, and a poor employment future for Americans. Balance of trade is a red herring. The USA is well on the bad side of that.
mal wrote:Its symbolic of work being shipped overseas, and a poor employment future for Americans. Balance of trade is a red herring. The USA is well on the bad side of that.
Symbols are man-made affectations - we use them for whatever we wish. In this case I see what YOU are trying to do with one you made up.
mal wrote:Its symbolic of work being shipped overseas, and a poor employment future for Americans. Balance of trade is a red herring. The USA is well on the bad side of that.
Symbols are man-made affectations - we use them for whatever we wish. In this case I see what YOU are trying to do with one you made up.
Yup. How utterly stupid and beside the point. We should all be concerned about jobs being shipped overseas, the decline of American manufacturing, etc. But we should also be SERIOUS about it, and not discovering the issue via this US Olympic uniforms tempest in a teapot.
Senator Harry Reid I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again
Did anyone mention that the uniforms are ridiculous in addition to being made in China? The beret is just plain silly.
I did see a picture, and I thought it was something out of Chariots of Fire. Ridiculous is too kind. Probably just as well they are Chinese made. At least Americans can say we don't anything that crappy!
On my twitter one of the followers pointed out that his son is in the US Coast Guard and his uniform is made in China. He had a picture of it. Strange how none of the pols seemed upset by that.
mal wrote:Its symbolic of work being shipped overseas, and a poor employment future for Americans. Balance of trade is a red herring. The USA is well on the bad side of that.
Symbols are man-made affectations - we use them for whatever we wish. In this case I see what YOU are trying to do with one you made up.
Senator Harry Reid I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again
Did anyone mention that the uniforms are ridiculous in addition to being made in China? The beret is just plain silly.
Those berets make them look like some type of military dress uniform to me. Even if nobody else gets that impression, I'm not sure that's the best style under the circumstances, considering it's the Olympic Games..
Ralph Lauren clearly got confused and thought the games were in Paris ...
I don't want to get into politics, but this kind of thing is a bit much from politicians whose PACs get donations from companies that outsource jobs and give subsidies to companies that outsource jobs. I'm British so I don't have a runner in this race.
The whole issue is election year politics, nothing of substance at all. The US clothing industry was one of the first to be oursourced way back in '80's. My wife had a small clothing business back then until it became obvious that we could only stay competitive by moving all garment construction to Asia. I doubt you could find enough skilled seamstresses and industrial machines in America to manufacture the quantity of special order clothing in the time window needed to clothe athletes for the games. It is a shame but is acting as if this is something shockingly new is a sham.
jhc68 wrote:I doubt you could find enough skilled seamstresses and industrial machines in America to manufacture the quantity of special order clothing in the time window needed to clothe athletes for the games.
Hmmm... too late for 2012, but the OTHER side of the news is the dire financial state of athletes, not enough money to put food on the table and all that. okay, let's see--- need money..... ....can't find people in America to make clothes....
am I the only one who sees a possible connection here? Do athletes have enough brains to learn skills on a fairly simple industrial machine? Start sewing!
Of course I'd like to see the USOC bigwigs who march around the track in the Opening Ceremony, to sew THEIR own uniform too.
Peggy Noonan in today's WSJ: They don't really look all that American. Have you seen them? Do they say "America" to you? . . . They look like some European bureaucrat's idea of a secret militia, like Brussels's idea of a chic new army. They're like the international community Steven Spielberg lined up to put on the spaceship at the end of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
Americans wear baseball caps, trucker hats, cowboy hats, watch caps, Stetsons, golf caps, even Panama hats and fedoras. They wear jeans and suits and khakis and shorts and workout clothes. The Americans in the now-famous uniform picture look like something out of a Vogue spread where the models arrayed on the yacht look like perfect representatives of the new global elite.
Our athletes aren't supposed to look like people who'd march under a flag with statues and harps and musical notes. Also, the women's uniforms make them look like stewardesses from the 777 fleet on Singapore Airlines.
The failure of the uniforms is that they don't communicate: "Here comes America."
They communicate: "Chic global Martians coming your way."
I agree with Peggy Noonan, but undoubtedly the decision of USOC to go with Ralph Lauren's so-called "classic" European look is because of the political leanings to blend in with the Europeans and stop pissing them off. (bilateralism instead of unilaterism) But dressing like them is ridiculous.
