USATF obviously gets the vast majority of its money from Nike which wants its swoosh all over the Olympics. The requirement makes USATF a lot of money and costs the athletes.
I was wondering if other sports do this as well. It certainly doesn't seem to be the case in figure skating. Anyone know why? I don't see any branding on the uniforms.
The short answer is yes . In presentation events , skating , gymnastics ,equestrian et , the clothing is categorized differently , as equipment . For track , when Emma C walked it in, her walking equipment were the nB shoes . Don’t ask me to explain this vague rule , where swim suits are equipment and swimmers can chose brands , yet singlets are uniforms ,where you cannot wear your own brand. Hopefully 🙏 Wiggins will not join this thread and talk about baggy snowboard pants, because he is old and still wears turtle neck shirts .
Have you never watched Olympics before? Plenty of other sports have uniform requirements. Famously, Under Armor screwed up the US speedskating team with substandard uniforms at a past Olympics. It's far more common Olympic sports to have clothing be uniforms vs equipment.
They're not wearing uniforms, probably. Custom suits from some chic designer in Paris
The figure skating costume, supposedly, matches the program/song. My daughter had about 3 or 4 programs and they each had a different costume. My wife and her coach got it, I didn't.
TV watcher wrote:
The short answer is yes . In presentation events , skating , gymnastics ,equestrian et , the clothing is categorized differently , as equipment . For track , when Emma C walked it in, her walking equipment were the nB shoes . Don’t ask me to explain this vague rule , where swim suits are equipment and swimmers can chose brands , yet singlets are uniforms ,where you cannot wear your own brand. Hopefully 🙏 Wiggins will not join this thread and talk about baggy snowboard pants, because he is old and still wears turtle neck shirts .
This is accurate. In each sport some the designations are made and negotiated. Even with gear like clothing for running or cycling the material and design might be adapted. For instance speed skating suits.Shoes as a runner is the primary piece of equipment and everyone understands you cannot ask someone to wear specific shoes. But singlets are pretty much singlets although each person might have a little quirk or not fit exactly as you would like it. In cycling sometimes the bibs are cut a little different from one another and can fit some people awkwardly.
rojo wrote:
USATF obviously gets the vast majority of its money from Nike which wants its swoosh all over the Olympics. The requirement makes USATF a lot of money and costs the athletes.
I was wondering if other sports do this as well. It certainly doesn't seem to be the case in figure skating. Anyone know why? I don't see any branding on the uniforms.
You’ll see them put on their warm-ups with a sponsor or two on their jacket as the camera zooms up-close while they await their scores.
TV watcher wrote:
Don’t ask me to explain this vague rule , where swim suits are equipment and swimmers can chose brands , yet singlets are uniforms ,where you cannot wear your own brand.
^^^Tell me you were never a serious swimmer, without telling me you were never a serious swimmer. (Or you haven't competed this millennium.)
As a strong runner, my singlet has no bearing on my performance (without the bounds of any standard garment).
Swimmers would NOT say this about their meet suit.
rojo wrote:
It certainly doesn't seem to be the case in figure skating.
I remember going to meets like USA v. USSR, Sunkist, Prefontaine, Twilight, when you would see the country uniforms, or team names and to me it added to the legendary status these singlets brought.
Now it's all of these identical nike wear that is the equivalent of wearing an Arby's uniform and name badge.
Wouldn't it be nice if we all had our cute little costumes at running races?
to be far, figure skating isnt a sport
Sports are both judged, and timed. Don't you know that?
Tom Ford wrote:
Wouldn't it be nice if we all had our cute little costumes at running races?
Look up Maggie Vessey.
Of course other sports do this. In every team sport the athletes are forced to wear matching unforims. I believe in the case of US soccer and basketball it is also Nike. Nike pays to be the uniform provider for those teams and has those rights. Typically, athletes have their own endorsements, and wear their sponsors gear where ever possible, within team rules. Figure skating is the exception (they don't wear uniforms) and US Figure Skating (or whatever they are called) probably does not have an apparel contract dictating competition gear (though they have standard jackets and such).
What is debatable, is should this be the case? It does make sense in team sports but I would argue that rules in track and field should be changed, since it is an individual sport and sponsorship is the primary source of income for athletes. Athletes should be able to wear sponsored gear in the Olympics, provided that gear is clearly labeled and the appropriate colors for the nation represented. Not sure what to do about relays, but I am sure this could be done. USATF would obviously have to forego their Nike money for it to happen, but it would be best for athletes.
On a similar topic, I noticed that in the halfpipe, more than one competitor had the bib with their number only over one shoulder. The other side looked as if he/she forgot to bring it over their head, or was just careless. Obviously, this is not the case, as there are coaches, managers, spotters, officials and they would tell the snowboarders that their bib was not on correctly. I'm thinking they are either:
- making some sort of protest
- want to show the apparel sponsor (unlikely)
- a snowboard cultural thing, like the baggy pants, etc.
- bib is too big, or gets in the way when twisting, spinning, etc.
I didn't have a chance to document whether it is consistently happening over/under one shoulder, on shorter people, or even for a specific country or with geo-politically bent. I would say I saw this on 3-4 of the snowboarders. Enough to conjecture it is not coincidence.
Others notice this too?
obvious distinction here wrote:
TV watcher wrote:
Don’t ask me to explain this vague rule , where swim suits are equipment and swimmers can chose brands , yet singlets are uniforms ,where you cannot wear your own brand.
^^^Tell me you were never a serious swimmer, without telling me you were never a serious swimmer. (Or you haven't competed this millennium.)
As a strong runner, my singlet has no bearing on my performance (without the bounds of any standard garment).
Swimmers would NOT say this about their meet suit.
This was my first thought, and I don't swim. While I don't really like it, I can see the logic. It's the same reason you can wear whichever spikes you want, they can actually effect performance, even pre-superspike.
Yes. I noticed it several times. After completing her run, twice I saw one US female snowboarder pull her arm through the bib to wear it normally while waiting for her scores. Based on my observations, it's just a snowboard cultural thing ("Look at me; I've got a vibe all my own!" which nearly half of the competitors are duplicating.)
How can you forget MJ with the Reebok cover up at the 1992 Olympics
IWuzaDuck wrote:
I remember going to meets like USA v. USSR, Sunkist, Prefontaine, Twilight, when you would see the country uniforms, or team names and to me it added to the legendary status these singlets brought.
Now it's all of these identical nike wear that is the equivalent of wearing an Arby's uniform and name badge.
I'll second this, and add that the simpler, but consistent designs for each country added to it. If you look at old photos/video of Olympics from, say, late 1960s to 1980s, you see a lot of countries wear basically the same jersey across multiple Games. Great Britain comes to mind, always white singlet and shorts, with a horizontal red stripe over a blue stripe. Occasionally a flag patch added to the chest, but that's about the only differentiation you'd see, and you can find images of David Hemery (60s) and Seb Coe (80s) in that same uniform. Finland was always blue shirt with small flag, white shorts. Etc. etc. The US team was about the only one to alter their look every Games, but even then they kept it simple, not like today where national team jerseys have crazy geometric designs that remind me of my kids' AYSO soccer jerseys in the 90s, are all pretty identical with the others from the same brand, and can't become strongly associated with the "brand" of the country because it'll be changed to some different crazy AYSO design next time.
