Olympic uniforms: How clothes came to make the Games

Once upon a time, we fixated on the gold around athletes’ necks, not the label on their uniforms. But over time, athletic wear has become a multibillion-dollar industry, with sponsorship deals and melon-sized monograms. And on a world stage, highly visible branding campaigns can lead to astronomical sales . . . or congressional outrage. From Spalding shortie-shorts to Team Polo pony, here’s a look at some less-controversial American uniforms.

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1936

In 1936, A.G. Spalding became the first official outfitter of the U.S. Olympic team, designing the uniforms for the Summer Olympics in Berlin. The men wore shorts that were as itty-bitty as the women's.

AP / AP

1936

Each female athlete was given a U.S.A. sweater, white shorts, sweatsuit and tracksuit.

ASSOCIATED PRESS / ASSOCIATED PRESS

1948

In 1948, the second time London hosted the Olympics, many American athletes bought their own ceremonial and competition uniforms. Known as the “Austerity Games” (a British buzzword once again), the ’48 Games found some athletes staying in private homes and paying for their own necessities. Times were tough and organizers were stingy. Can you blame folks for ignoring the clothes?

ASSOCIATED PRESS / AP

1984

Back when most Levis were still made in the United States, Levi Strauss outfitted Team U.S.A. in boot-cut denim jeans (with a cuff!) and cowboy hats for the 1984 Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo. The uniform looked remarkably similar to the one Levi had designed four years prior for the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Anonymous / AP

1992

J.C. Penney was the official outfitter of the 1992 Olympic Summer Games in Barcelona. It tapped menswear designer Henry Grethel to make blue blazers, stars-and-stripes ties and white floppy Panama hats for the 1,500 athletes and coaches.

RON KUNTZ / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

2002

When presumptive GOP candidate Mitt Romney was at the helm of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Roots, a Canadian company, made a popular fleece beret in red, white and blue. The company’s sales soared, but a minor outcry ensued when reports surfaced that the Roots uniforms were manufactured in Burma. In 2002, though, critics were more concerned with sweatshop labor practices than with lost American jobs.

2004

Roots also designed the U.S. Olympic uniforms for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Hats were once again called into question when the athletes showed up in golf caps that evoked the Roaring Twenties. Because the Games were held during the infancy of the Iraq War, some critics claimed the hats were chosen to avoid any “gunslinging” imagery evoked by American cowboy imagery.

Michael Robinson-Chavez / THE WASHINGTON POST

2008

When the U.S. Olympic Committee needed a sponsor to make the ceremonial uniforms for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Ralph Lauren stepped in and provided some preppie sweater vests and ribbon belts. Those uniforms, too, were manufactured in China. But perhaps it was a nod to the host country?

RICHARD DREW / ASSOCIATED PRESS

2012

This year Ralph Lauren designed the uniforms again, but debate erupted after ABC World News reported that the blazers and berets were manufactured in China. For the 2014 Winter Olympics, Lauren has to vowed to manufacture the uniforms in the United States.

Ralph Lauren / AP

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