Well-placed hate for Nike's US track uniforms

Terrible:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3249/2678064200_d4d5001fe9_b.jpg

People in knee-highs and arm-warmers... in Beijing... in August.

And did I mention they're navy blue and make our athletes look like total d-bags?

are those the american gladiator uniforms?

It's like a really cheesy super-hero outfit that even a super-hero would know enough not to wear. Absolutely hideous.

I can't imagaine that any of the middle distance and distance runners are actually going to wear those arm and leg coverings.

Saadly, this just underscores the extent to which the Olympics is just commerce now.

It's obviously more of a sprinter thing. No one expects Lagat and Lomong and others to wear these uni's for anything higher than 400m. Even there, you may see a leg sheath, but no full arm covers. Ease up, Nike has some of the best sport scientists in the world. I didn't hear this much complaining when they introduced the Victory and the mambo or whatever it's called. It's the same principle people: lighter is faster! Aerodynamics are just as important when you're trying to achieve maximum velocity!

Show how callused you are to technology and go back to racing in old Sand-Knit jerseys and full poly shorts from the 70's. While you're at it pick up the latest pair of Saucony Jazz trainers from 1978. They'll be in your "casual" section at a local shop.

funny wrote:

It's obviously more of a sprinter thing. No one expects Lagat and Lomong and others to wear these uni's for anything higher than 400m. Even there, you may see a leg sheath, but no full arm covers. Ease up, Nike has some of the best sport scientists in the world. I didn't hear this much complaining when they introduced the Victory and the mambo or whatever it's called. It's the same principle people: lighter is faster! Aerodynamics are just as important when you're trying to achieve maximum velocity!

Show how callused you are to technology and go back to racing in old Sand-Knit jerseys and full poly shorts from the 70's. While you're at it pick up the latest pair of Saucony Jazz trainers from 1978. They'll be in your "casual" section at a local shop.

If those asinine arm things eventually become standard issue for sprinters bcause they actually do improve performance, I'll eat my stopwatch.

Still better than this bit of silliness.

http://www.smh.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1032734332627_2002/09/28/spt_freeman020928,0.jpg

I can't figure out why the USA doesn't settle on a color scheme. When I watched the World Cup and Euro Cup soccer, it took all of about 3 seconds to figure out who was playing, since almost every other country uses a consistent color scheme.

Speaking of which, those ridiculous full-body suits like Freeman wore in 2000 have really caught on, haven't they? Just like the idiotic hoods on the US sprinters' unis Kappa made in '88. Why do these sportswear companies inflict these idiotic designs on the athletes just for the olympics?

Again, if this nonsense had any actual value you'd see athletes wearing the stuff in non-oly years. Call it what it is: corporate-designed look-at-me garbage.

They should wear the 1992 uniforms every year.

I wonder if the Nike designers thought about how dark blue will look in the millions of photographs that will be taken at night, or even at midday. There's gonna be a lot of pictures of heads roaming the track at dusk.

There was nothing wrong with the 2004 uni's. They could have changed the font maybe, or gone with red shorts. But these new ones are possibly the worst yet. If I'd come in 4th at the trials, I'd be sitting at home repeating to myself, "But look at how awful the uni's are.... look at how awful the uni's are...."

Paul Lukas wrote:

Again, if this nonsense had any actual value you'd see athletes wearing the stuff in non-oly years.

We have a winner. Best observation and comment thus far.