Drip dropped: Canadian Olympic team gear doesn’t measure up on the world stage

OTTAWA—Why can’t we have nice things? The opening ceremonies of the 2024 Paris Olympics on July 26 was one of the best ways to show off Canadian pride, style, culture, and performance. Instead, Canadian athletes sailed down the Seine River to claim their prize as the tackiest fit of the ceremonies. The Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee partnered with Lululemon for Team Canada’s Olympic uniforms. As reported by CBC, “Stylistically, the uniforms combine red, white, and other colours using Lululemon calls modern silhouettes and Canadian-inspired prints.” It was a sartorial disgrace. Lululemon must be prosecuted for its crimes against the citizens of this country in the form of sartorial ignobility. They made Team Canada show up to the Olympics looking like a monthly cycle with those blotches of red. I’m all for menstruation rights, but not as a fashion statement. To be fair, the opening and closing ceremony clothing represent the northern lights through a print created by Mason Mashon, an Indigenous artist from the Saddle Creek Cree Nation. But here’s another problem: in our world of late-stage capitalism, Lululemon’s logo is larger and more visible than the Canadian maple leaf. Is that supposed to represent Canada’s affinity for bloated, national corporations, or is that supposed to remind us that Lululemon is selling this kit for champagne prices, but delivering beer dreams? For example, on Lululemon’s website, the Team Canada Women's Vented Jacquard Bomber Jacket is $398, in this economy. Can’t knock the hustle. The only Canadian who looked like her attire matched the occasion—and spent some money on it—was Céline Dion, who made a triumphant return to the stage with a powerful rendition of Edith Piaf's L'Hymne à l'Amour. It was heartwarming to watch the Quebec icon return to brilliance after a health issue affected her ability to sing. Like a sunk cost fallacy, when you’ve been watching the opening ceremonies for four hours, you’re holding on to the end to see Céline—and of course, to be spiteful. This country has an insidious problem of stylistic cheapness, infused with flair for tackiness. Before Lululemon, Team Canada’s clothing was made by Hudson’s Bay, which created the 2020 Tokyo Olympics kit. Here’s how it was presented back then: “The jacket features graffiti inspired graphics and wordmarks across the front and back including the iconic Hudson's Bay Stripes, … the Team Canada patch, a Canadian flag and Canada wordmarks. The collar features two symbolic dates: 1964, the year Tokyo first hosted the Olympic Games, and 2020 to represent the year the Games were set to take place.” That is thoughtful, and even though there was an online backlash, the designers took a risk—at least they didn’t bore us to death. There are those who want to pipe up and say that the Olympics is for sports, not a fashion show. Well, that’s evident. But it’s an ignorant take. Other countries such as Mongolia—the best of the pack this year—and Haiti—second best, in my not-so-humble opinion—had the foresight and the taste to hire designers from their country to create uniforms that introduced their culture to the world as global elite athletes. The United States, which has been wearing the same Ralph Lauren ensemble since Noah was a small boy, at least has a designer. In Canada, we have a few designers that could’ve been called upon to create fashions that would put this country in the realm of the respectability that you all fight for. Did anyone contact Jason Wu? Aurora James? Dean and Dan Caten of Dsquared2? This would’ve also been a great opportunity to lift new designers, racialized designers, and give designers that need funding to create collections a chance to have their work be displayed in one of the most important sporting events on the planet. But no, Canada instead wants to lift the corporations charging $400 for a styleless, soulless jacket. However, on the other hand, this sounds exactly like Canada—missing the point. We must remember that this isn’t Friday Night Lights, this is the Olympic Games—the height of athleticism from around the world—and this is how we’ve decided to present ourselves. It’s an abomination. Erica Ifill is a co-host of the Bad+Bitchy podcast. The Hill Times

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Drip dropped: Canadian Olympic team gear doesn’t measure up on the world stage

Canadian athletes sailed down the Seine River to claim their prize as the tackiest fit of the ceremonies.

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