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Cleveland
Plain Dealer...
Outsourcing?
U.S. Olympic team’s China-made uniforms become political fodder
Friday,
July 13, 2012
By Stephen
Koff
WASHINGTON
-- Nothing says U.S.A. like red, white and blue.
But the
labels on the U.S. Olympic team’s clothing in the Olympics opening
ceremony on
July 27 will say “made in China,” reports ABC News.
And that
displeases at least one lawmaker.
U.S. Sen.
Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat harshly critical of foreign
outsourcing, wrote
to the U.S. Olympic Committee Thursday to remind it that there are
fully
capable clothiers in the United States.
The Hugo
Boss plant in Brooklyn, Ohio, comes to Brown’s mind, naturally, since
he was
involved in getting Boss to keep its only remaining U.S. suit
manufacturing
operation open there. Boss is a German company, but the workers at this
plant
are American, as are many retailers that sell the Boss line.
“Not only
does the United States have any number of manufacturers capable of
outfitting
our athletes, they are in a competition with the Chinese that is
anything but
fair,” Brown said in his letter to Lawrence F. Probst, III, chairman of
the
U.S. Olympic Comnmittee. “If gold medals were awarded for dodging
international
trade laws – China would sweep.”
AP - Ralph
Lauren designed Team USA’s Official Opening and Closing Ceremony Parade
Uniforms.
The 2012
Olympic Opening ceremony will be a chance for Team USA to show off the
design
skills of an American, Ralph Lauren, who also designed USA opening
uniforms for
the 2008 Olympics in China. Lauren’s Olympic fashion features white
pants and
skirts, blue bazers and berets, and red ties.
The U.S.
Olympic Committee told ABC News, “The U.S. Olympic team is privately
funded and
we’re grateful for the support of our sponsors. We’re proud of our
partnership
with Ralph Lauren, an iconic American company.”
Cynics might note that Chinese goods often
cost less. But the men’s blazers for Team USA cost $795, and the
women’s, $598,
ABC says. The ties cost $125, the belts $85, and the berets $55.
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