Saturday, August 23, 2008

Not a Good Sign


During the Olympics, there are people who come to the Games and like to swap pins. Kind of like an international exchange.

And at one street corner near the Media Press Center or MPC at Beichen Xilu and Datun Lu there are people sitting on the ground showing off their vast collections from previous Olympics and from various countries.

The athletes participating in the Games go one step up and like to trade pieces of their uniform with other countries.

Canada used to have very cool outfits, designed by casual wear maker Roots.

The Canadian company (with American founders) also designed uniforms for other countries too.

But for this Games and for 2010, the contract was handed to Hudson's Bay Company or HBC.

And when the uniforms were revealed, practically everyone at home panned them.

The designs were busy and the colour scheme of red, white and gold just didn't gel together.

It's not just the designer's fault, but also the Canadian Olympic Committee and other government sport bodies who approved it.

However, what has been a hit are the red shirts that say "Jianada" or "Canada" on the back in Chinese characters.

Nevertheless, a friend tells me that the team uniforms have been deemed so ugly that the Canadian athletes can't even trade them with other countries.

Their clothes have no market value.

That's a bad sign.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

from what i saw on parade of the athletes it seems to me the smaller the country the better looking are their uniforms. small is beautiful , the simpler the better. the canadian designs are much too complex. an overkill. again no need to stick to red and white alone. the chinese uniforms are sometimes in blue and white etc. look at the rainbow color decorations in the water cube and the stadium it is so pleasant.