Ralph Lauren Team USA OLYMPIC Uniforms MADE in CHINA!!
US Olympic Uniforms MADE IN CHINA! Boo HISS!!#RalphLauren #TeamUSA
— tree hugging sister (@treehuggingsis) July 11, 2012
Oh, well done U.S. Olympic Committee and Mr. Snooty Designer of Iconic American Threads. Could the optics ALONE be any more horrific?
Fabulous! Brilliant!
I’m waiting on World News Tonight to post the video, but here’s a little Tweet from them regarding the economic impact of a truly appalling, atrocious and tone-deaf decision:
If all the US Olympic clothing and momentos were made in America it would keep a billion dollars from heading overseas this yr #ABCWorldNews
— ABC World News (@ABCWorldNews) July 11, 2012
This is being retweeted all over right now and one of the many I noticed in this embed is UFCW Local 400, who are, as they say on their homepage:
The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 represents workers in OH, KY, TN, WV, VA, MD and DC. www.ufcw400.org.
Oooo! I think everybody’s pissed off, eh?
Boo! Hiss!
ths update: And there we have it.
From ABC News, here’s what those natty little outfits cost:
Men:
Beret – $55
Tie – $125
Belt – $85
Shirt – $425
Blazer – $795
Trousers – $295
Shoes – $165Women:
Beret – $55
Scarf – $58
Belt – $85
Shirt – $179
Skirt – $498
Blazer – $598
Followed by an absolutely devastating, UNANSWERED question from American designer Nanette Lepore, interviewed in the report:
…“Why shouldn’t we have pride not only in the American athletes, but in the American manufacturers and laborers who are the backbone of our country?” Lepore said to ABC News.
“Why? What’s wrong? Why was that not a consideration?”
It should have been the very FIRST consideration, especially in these trying times.
Well. You’d think.
Biz, People | tree hugging sister | 
July 11, 2012 7:36 pm
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Not only are they made in China, they look FRENCH.
I am working very hard to censor myself here 😉
Between this and the ooogly “professional” photos of the US Olympic team (Google “olympic shoddy” for lots of articles about the debacle), someone really needs to be taken to the woodshed.
They are some UGLY effin’ uniforms. Dear GOD, they are.
Insult to injury, there.
We’ve been unloading on old Ralph Lipschitz’s (as Mr. Tres Cool was named when he was birthed) FB page for a bit here and thought I’d pass along the idea.
The US Olympic Committee needs to be shut down — they are too full of themselves. The Olympics are not THAT important.
Besides the typically androgenous, asexual styling of Ralph Lauren, I doubt that all of the dudgeon would be present if the pieces of clothing had been made in Italy. I loathe the commie Chinese overlords as much as anybody that pays attention, but this is much ado about nothing. Rather, I think this is a primo example of the media liberals manifesting their racism against Asians. See how that works? We should just turn stuff like this back around and use it to deprecate the bastards that have been maligning us for decades. 😉
Nah, I don’t agree, skh. of ALL the things in this of ALL years, the frickin’ elitest morons could have taken an extra forty minutes to figure out who still had a machine in the country that could knit a beenie.
They blew it BIG TIME.
Yeah, so nothing is made in the USA anymore, most especially clothing. So no big deal in that department.
I’m more appalled that a beret is involved. What kind of designer did that?
Skyler, here’s a partial list of things still made here.
As for “Made in the USA” clothing, Skyler, you’d be surprised then, I guess! Our buying group for the store has a HUGE list of for its members to easily search (For starters, I wear Citizens of Humanity jeans, our best selling line of casual pants is Bills Khakis and all our belts are Martin Dingman, ALL Made in the USA!) and more are being added all the time.
And last year ABC News, to their credit, started a whole series on Made in America and have kept the stories they’ve done and resources they found on this page for everyone to use.
And the BERETS SUCK!!
Great link, Mr. B. Our Made in Monmouth folks are going to hear about it ASAP.
How does a US Olympian become an instant hero and get him/herself huge recognition?
Answer: During the opening ceremonies, ditch the silly beret for a big honk’n cowboy hat.
One thing about that ‘billion dollars heading overseas’ – that’s figuring the amount based on American labour & materials. Move that decimal a couple of spaces to the left for Chinese labour & materials.
“How does a US Olympian become an instant hero and get him/herself huge recognition?
Answer: During the opening ceremonies, ditch the silly beret for a big honk’n cowboy hat.”
Made in China… (and no, I’m not kidding – picked one up in a local store the other day and looked). Sigh. Hope they enjoy rustling the water buffalo.
Actually, Kathy, they could ALL wear a natty Makins hat (Again, Made in the USA!!!) of their choice.
We sell those, too.
Men’s total cost $1945, Women’s total cost $1473. WTF! Since when does the guy clothes cost more than the gals?
Seriously, I’m the most jingoistic, knee-jerk, reactionary conservative that I know (lost a couple of friends from high school on Facebook this week due to an intemperate Ozero post), but I really don’t think that this is a big deal. Chances are, most of the USOC and athletes use all sorts of things manufactured elsewhere. “Self-sufficiency is the road to poverty.” (Google that for an explanation.) We should sweat the major things and not get wrapped around the axle of the clown car that is the Olympics. I probably won’t watch any of the events anyway.
All of that being said, if our military uniforms were being made in another country, that would be a problem.
I have several Filson shirts made in the US and they have lasted longer that the Columbia shirts made elsewhere, but at a 2x-3x premium. And I didn’t realize that there’s a place in Pcola that sells Bill’s…I’ve always wanted to try on a pair, but I’m “long waisted” (like my father, as my mom always said), but didn’t want to go through the hassle of ordering and returning.
Email me, skh, if you can’t find the name. I never put it on the blog.
To put it into perspective for myself, I was far more uncomfortable with the entire Summer Olympics’ taking place in China last go-around.
Weren’t there also berets for Salt Lake City? I seem to recall that the family for whom my sister babysat brought her back one.