http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/06/olympic-outsourcing-team-usa-snowboarders-uniforms-foreign-made/
I am sure you all can still remember the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Michael Phelps becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time, Gabby Douglas becoming the first African American to win the Gold in the All-around Girls Gymnastics, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings taking the Gold in woman's Beach volleyball and so much more. So, for anyone who watched the games I am sure you will remember the all the big headlines about the how the USA uniforms were not made in America. Well, it happened again. Burton a very big snowboard company partnered with the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association to create uniforms for the U.S. Snowboarding team, but the uniforms were not Made In America. The uniforms were actually made all over the world. The uniforms went too Japan, Italy, Taiwan, Vietnam, China. Burton defends the decision by saying that they sent the uniforms to the best vendors around the world.
"The Sochi Games will mark the third Winter Olympics where Burton partnered with the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association to create uniforms for the U.S. Snowboarding team. The primary focus of this year’s design, according to company materials, was “technical performance” above all.
“As such, every piece of the uniform has to perform at the highest level and keep the athletes warm and dry in the unpredictable weather conditions that could come in Sochi,” Burton’s statement continued."
When I heard about the 2012 Summer Olympic uniforms being not being made in the US, I personally thought it was stupid. I believed that the Olympic uniforms should be made in the US. But, after reading this article it made me think about it more. Burton talks about the "technical performance being the above all primary focus, because the boarders need to stay warm and dry. This makes total sense to me because being a skier myself I want to stay warm and dry, and as Burton says in the article this is the Olympic games the most important of their careers, they deserve the best, which I do completely agree with. I think what got me about the summer Olympics is that well those uniforms don't require as much technical performance as the winter uniforms. I am all for clothes being made in America, especially the Olympic uniforms, but if we truly do not have the resources then I understand. I agree with Burton's decision on the winter uniforms and I think they make up for it considering the majority of the snowboards the Burton athletes will be using were handmade in Burlington, Vermont at Burton Headquarters.
