From readers: Forget uniforms, U.S. Olympians should 'go naked'
Mohammad Naim Yaakub
Ni copy and paste from CNN, panjang sikit but its food for thought re: globalisation, patriotism, helping domestic economy, private sponsorship
(CNN) -- The U.S. Olympic Committee says it is too late to remake uniforms that sport "Made in China" labels for the London Games, though vowed Team USA would march in clothing made in America during the opening of the 2014 Winter Games.
The announcement Friday was an about face by the USOC a day after it defended the use of the Ralph Lauren designer uniform, which were widely condemned by lawmakers who questioned why the work was not given to the hard-hit American textile industry.
"We take seriously the concerns we've heard from members of Congress and the American public regarding the U.S. Olympic Team's Opening and Closing ceremonies uniforms," Scott Blackmun, the USOC chief executive officer, said in a written statement.
"With athletes having already arrived in London, and the apparel distribution process beginning this weekend, we are unfortunately not able to make a change for London. We are absolutely committed, however, to working with our sponsors to ensure that the concerns voiced are addressed."
What's really 'Made in America'
In the statement, Blackmun said that Ralph Lauren would domestically manufacture the uniforms to be worn at the opening and closing of the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, in two years.
Ralph Lauren's sponsorship as the official outfitter of the U.S. Olympic team began in 2008 and runs through 2020, according to USOC profiles of its sponsors.
The controversy cast a spotlight on the plight of the U.S. textile industry, which has been hit hard in recent years by outsourcing and the economic downturn.
"Ralph Lauren promises to lead the conversation within our industry and our government addressing the issue of increasing manufacturing in the United States and has committed to producing the Opening and Closing ceremony Team USA uniforms in the United States that will be worn for the 2014 Olympic Games," the fashion company said in statement released Friday.
According to the U.S. Labor Department, 10 years ago, there were more than 350,000 Americans employed by apparel manufacturers. Last month, that number was 147,300. In testimony before Congress last year, the American Apparel and Footwear Association said that 98% of all apparel and 99% of all footwear sold in the United States are manufactured abroad.
The news the uniforms were made in China broke the same week House Democrats introduced a "Make It In America" jobs bill, striking a raw nerve with some lawmakers.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said the USOC "should be ashamed" and called for the uniforms to be "burned."
Initially, USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky took to Twitter to describe the uproar as "nonsense." In a statement on Thursday, he said: "Unlike most Olympic teams around the world, the U.S. Olympic Team is privately funded and we're grateful for the support of our sponsors."
Public pressure, though, mounted with thousands taking to Facebook and Twitter to demand the uniforms be made in America.
The first indication the USOC was changing its position came early Friday when Rep. Steve Israel and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, both Democrats from New York, said they spoke with Blackmun.
From our readers: Forget uniforms, U.S. Olympians should 'go naked'
The two lawmakers wrote a joint letter on Thursday to the USOC urging it to make the uniforms in the United States.
"Just had a positive conversation re: uniforms with CEO of the @USOlympic Committee. Looking forward to hearing more soon," Israel said in a tweet.
A short time later, the USOC and Ralph Lauren issued statements.
Israel said he happy to hear the Olympic committee will require future uniforms be domestically manufactured "but disappointed no US-made uniforms in London," he tweeted.
Dara Torres, a former American Olympic swimmer who won 12 medals in a span of 20 years, said the Ralph Lauren uniforms -- with their blue berets and blazers and off-white pants and skirts -- looked great but would be better if they were produced domestically.
"Wearing the U.S. uniform, going out there to represent the United States, it would be nice if it was actually made in the United States," she told CNN.
The USOC is no stranger to controversy over its sponsorships, with questions being raised over why it opted last year to extend BP's sponsorship through the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.
It was questioned as early as the 2002 during the Winter Games in Salt Lake City about why American athletes donned berets made by Roots, a Canadian company.
Headlines also were made this year in Australia when it was revealed its uniforms for the Olympics also were made in China. The Australian Olympic Committee responded to critics by saying it was not financially viable to make the outfits at home, according to local media reports.
Some Canadian lawmakers became irate in 2008, when it was learned that Canadian uniforms for the Olympics in Beijing were made in China.
American companies have made Olympic uniforms in the past, notably, Reebok, Levi's and Champion.
shukor mohd
mfaizal...@gmail.com
Terima kasih hj Le Coq for the reminder umur mcm ni baik kurang tgk sport especially bulan ramadan, baik spend time qatam Quran dari wasye time tgk sport
shukor mohd
Mohammad Naim Yaakub
Rasanya uniform tu includes shirt, jacket (blazer), pants, cap and shoes.
Nanti balik Malaysia will try to visit your eatery. Nampak dalam gambar sedap.
On Sunday, July 15, 2012, <mfaizal...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Apa pas uniform saja nak pertikai,L kasut adidas, handphone kebanyakan made in cina.
mfaizal...@gmail.com
Azmai Ishak
Nasi kankang ada ke tak..?
Noor Bakri Ansari
On 7/16/12, Azmai Ishak <abi.sm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Nasi kankang ada ke tak..?
> On Jul 15, 2012 9:36 PM, <mfaizal...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerry® smartphone
>> *From: * Mohammad Naim Yaakub <genera...@gmail.com>
>> *Sender: * smsp...@googlegroups.com
>> *Date: *Sun, 15 Jul 2012 21:04:17 +0800
>> *To: *smsp...@googlegroups.com<smsp...@googlegroups.com>
>> *ReplyTo: * smsp...@googlegroups.com
>> *Subject: *Re: From readers: Forget uniforms, U.S. Olympians should 'go
Mohammad Naim Yaakub
Editor's note: Daniel Ikenson directs the libertarian Cato Institute's Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies.
(CNN) -- Patriotism, it has been said, is the last refuge of scoundrels. Indeed, with 86% of the American public disapproving of Congress' performance, refuge-seeking politicians have wrapped themselves in the flag to denounce the fact that the U.S. Olympic team's uniforms were manufactured in China.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said he was "so upset ... they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again." House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, clucked of the Olympic committee at a news conference that "You'd think they'd know better."
To prevent such abominations in the future, six Democratic senators plan to introduce the "Team USA Made in America Act of 2012″ next week. According to co-sponsor Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, the legislation will mandate that "(f)rom head to toe, Team U.S.A. must be made in America." (The U.S. Olympic Committee announced Friday that it was too late to remake the uniforms for the London Games, but said the U.S. clothing for the 2014 Winter Games would be made in the U.S.)
Perhaps the Beltway crowd can be forgiven for scoring some easy political points in election season, and the "scandal" will eventually burn out. But of greater concern is the lack of aptitude for basic economic and trade realities demonstrated by our leaders' remarks.
Trade is not a competition between "our producers" and "their producers." In fact, U.S.-based firms benefit from collaborating with foreign firms by carving up the production process into distinct functions and processes that suit each location's efficiencies and strengths. Just as trade enables U.S. consumers to benefit from lower-cost final goods, globalization enables U.S. producers to benefit from access to lower-cost resources put into the manufacturing system. That enables them to compete more effectively at home and abroad.
In the typical production supply chain for consumer products, of which apparel production is a good example, the higher-value, pre-manufacturing activities like designing, engineering, and branding, and post-manufacturing activities like marketing, warehousing, transporting, and retailing happen in the United States, while the mostly lower-end manufacturing and assembly activities take place abroad. In the end, the final product is a collaborative effort, with the majority of the value accruing to U.S. workers, firms, and shareholders.
So, what exactly is un-American about Chinese-made Olympic uniforms? Nearly half of the clothing in America's closets is made in China, and almost all of the rest is made in other foreign countries. With a very few exceptions, we simply don't cut and sew clothing much in the United States anymore.
But we design clothing here. We brand clothing here. We market and retail clothing here.
The apparel industry employs plenty of Americans, just not in the cutting and sewing operations that our parents and grandparents endured, working long hours for low wages.
Could Ralph Lauren -- the brand atop the long, integrated supply chain that takes apparel ideas from conception all the way to the consumer -- have forgone use of the Chinese factories that do most of the brand's cutting and sewing operations and, instead, contracted with U.S. factories for the Olympic uniform project? Yes, probably, but at significantly higher cost. Still, that change would have had to be a custom request of the private funders of the Olympic team, who -- unlike the Congress -- might have felt obligated to stay within budget.
Besides, the implication that producing several hundred uniforms in the United States would fix the national employment problem is humorous. Maybe it would have created a few dozen jobs for perhaps a few weeks, but not much more than that. Far more jobs would be created from the one extra day of certainty that would be afforded by Congress deciding today, as opposed to tomorrow, what the 2013 tax rates were going to be.
If you are still not convinced of the folly of our policymakers' objections, consider this: As our U.S. athletes march around the track at London's Olympic stadium wearing their Chinese-made uniforms and waving their Chinese-made American flags, there is a good chance that Chinese athletes will have arrived in London byU.S.-made aircraft, been trained on U.S.-designed and -engineered equipment, wearing U.S.-designed and -engineered footwear, many having perfected their skills using U.S.-created technology.
Our economic relationship with China, characterized by transnational supply chains and disaggregated production sharing, is more collaborative than competitive.
The nature of that relationship is inherently beneficial to American consumers and the economy at large; despite the alarmism emanating from the halls of power, trade is not a win-lose proposition. Politicians should butt out and let the "competition" play out in the pools, tracks and playing fields.