🔥FIRE SALE🔥 No. 20
🇺🇸USA Olympics training gear, 🌎 global sponsorships, 🐶 adorable mascots, and🏅sublime athleticism
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Now…cue the John Williams NBC score and Meredith Vieira color commentary! Cue the nationalist fervor! Cue the mountains of condoms being disseminated across the Olympic Village! Cue the bread, butter, cigarettes, and rude disposition toward tourists! We’re going to Paris.
Leading up to the Paris games, LVMH spent around €152 million to become the preeminent sponsor, and Bernard Arnault seems personally and professionally invested in the games' success. Louis Vuitton designed fantastic, roomy uniforms for medal bearers and a beautiful medal tray to boot.
While the French hosts will be looking fabulous in their made-to-measure finery, I always find the Olympics to be a great time to dip my toe back into the essentials of American sportswear and the goofier side of what is the largest merchandising event in the world every four years.
Since Ralph Lauren began designing the Olympic uniforms, he has done what he does best: dive into the history books, identify timeless American style, and resuscitate it for the modern age. When Ralph Lauren dresses the American Olympians, he’s paying homage to the era of timeless classic athletes such as Jim Thorpe and Jesse Owens. When he debuted on the Olympic stage in 2008, you could have been almost convinced that the Olympians had arrived on an ocean liner. The highly contemporary technical gear of the '80s and '90s was supplanted by a more classic look, especially when it comes to the opening ceremony outfits.
This hoodie from the Olympic Training Facility in Colorado Springs has a touch of that timelessness. The last couple of weeks have felt like a movie montage as content from across the globe has trickled onto my feed from training sessions in Colorado Springs, swimming qualifications in Indianapolis, or USA Basketball showcases in Abu Dhabi. Regardless of the location, I find the idea of training your whole life and finally receiving a bundle of that official gear to be a romantic and inspiring moment. If I can even have one ounce of that feeling by wearing something like this navy hoodie with USA stitched on the back or this ARTEX jacket (below), sign me up…just not for the decathlon. I would probably collapse.
The Olympics are nothing if not a grand celebration of global sponsorship opportunities. There aren’t many logos as truly ubiquitous as the Olympic rings, so seeing some sponsored merch with an equally ubiquitous brand like Coca-Cola, or the place where you can get plastic planters, is always hilarious (in that it sort of squelches the sanctity of the games) and cool in a boneheaded, ironic way. It turns out global commerce and global unity make for some pretty excellent apparel.
In the lead-up to the ‘92 games in Barcelona, which are most famous in the United States as the event that catalyzed the formation of the Dream Team, the Olympic Organising Committee commissioned artist Javier Mariscal to illustrate a mascot for the games. He came up with Cobi, the cutest Catalian sheepdog ever, in a cubist style reminiscent of a Picasso sketch. Mariscal was already a legend for designing the freaky fun duplex stool, and Cobi is the cherry on top. Owning a piece of merch with him teeing up for a base hit or carrying the banner for your country is like owning a piece of Mariscal’s storied career.
I’ve had the joy of watching Toyko Olympiad over the course of the last two nights. This incredibly vibey movie directed by Kon Ichikawa has been ripped off into oblivion by all subsequent sports documentaries. It’s a true fly on the wall of what was a momentous occasion and a moment of healing for the Japanese people as they rebuilt their country in the wake of World War II. The first two shots of the film are a striking rising sun followed by the smash of a wrecking ball – something out of the art house, not The Last Dance.
The game's motto, “Peace, Love, and Courage,” is displayed in every frame. Not to mention, everyone looks fantastic. During the opening ceremony, individual Olympians from across the globe wear perfect modern suits, and their uniforms are traditional sportswear that Ralph Lauren would certainly admire. It’s a feast for summer-style inspiration and a testament to the human spirit. I recommend it to anyone who wants to get excited about the upcoming games.
The full film is linked here.