Ringing endorsements

When the Olympic Games were held for the first time in ancient Greece, athletes competed nude. But the modern Games have been full of fashion moments, from the good (Florence Griffith Joyner’s one-legged white lace running suits and 3-inch patriotic nails in Seoul in 1988) to the bad (the U.S. team’s cowboy hats at the opening ceremony in Nagano in 1998) to the godawful (the U.S. gymnasts’ beauty pageant body glitter in Sydney in 2000).

In 1900, female tennis players returned serves without removing their hats. In the 1930s and 1940s, male figure skaters donned tuxedos. In Innsbruck, Austria, in 1976, Dorothy Hamill’s wedge sparked a million haircuts. And at the Summer Games in Montreal that year, a streaker made an anti-fashion statement.

The most memorable Olympic fashion moments have been expressions of personal style, but the dollar value of exposure to 4 billion TV viewers around the globe has proved too great to leave it at that. The Olympic Games have become the sportswear version of the Oscars’ red carpet.

Unlike our first ladies, our Olympic athletes don’t feel the need to buy American. So Roots, the Toronto-based sportswear company, will outfit the U.S. team for tonight’s opening ceremony, as well as providing “village wear” and travel gear. The public can buy similar styles at the Beverly Hills Roots store.

“What the athletes are wearing,” says Dr. Bob Barney, professor emeritus in the International Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Ontario, “isn’t particularly a reflection of what they want to wear or what they need to wear. It’s a reflection of the deals made by the Olympic committees with garment companies. It’s a great feather in Roots’ cap to be the official marketeer.”

Apparel companies hope to translate the exposure into retail sales. At the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Roots’ $19.95 navy blue fleece berets were first worn by the U.S. Team and later made available to the public. They were such a hit that people lined up for hours to buy them. This summer, the company hopes that a $34.95 poor boy cap will score fans. “It can be worn forward, backward like a newsboy, or sideways, which is more urban,” says Michael Budman, the company’s co-founder.

Roots first became involved with the Olympics in 1976, when the Canadian team chose the company’s famous negative-heel boots (a cousin to the Earth shoe, with a heel lower than the ball of the foot) for the opening ceremony in Montreal. The clothier resurfaced in 1988, when members of the Jamaican bobsled team landed at the Calgary Games without any coats. The company made their team jackets as well as outfitting the entire Canadian contingent. The U.S. Winter team followed in 2002, and this year Roots is clothing teams from Britain and Barbados too.

For design research, Budman looked at hours of tapes of past opening ceremonies. He says he tried to avoid cultural cliches while staying true to national heritage and colors. “When we got involved with the U.S. team, I told them, ‘If you want cowboy hats, you’ve come to the wrong people.’ ” Instead, the “true navy, wildcat red-and-white” pieces have the feel of vintage 1970s NBA uniforms (snap-front shirts and terry cloth wristbands) combined with a more youthful collegiate touch (track pants with “USA” printed across the backside, Team U.S.A. flip-flops with an abstract Olympic rings-and-wreath pattern on the foot bed, and bucket hats).

The British team will wear a modern take on the traditional cricket club jacket, designed in an athletic knit. Budman suggested a toque for the Canadians but got shot down. “And for the U.S.,” he says, “we did some trucker hats, but they won’t be in the parade.”

Different countries have different policies regarding clothing sponsorship. Some national Olympic committees sign deals with sportswear companies to outfit every sport; others leave it up to the individual sports federations to make deals. Some star athletes who have endorsement deals have had to fight to wear certain clothing because their teams have signed deals with rival apparel companies. For example, Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe will wear an Adidas suit, even though Speedo is the long-standing Australian team sponsor. The U.S. Olympic team has deals with Roots for the opening ceremony and Adidas for podium clothing, but individual sports federations have made their own alliances for performance and practice outfits.

Getting dressed for the Olympics used to be simpler. Until the 1970s, uniforms were mostly unadorned. In 1968, 16-year-old swimmer Debbie Meyer competed in a floral one-piece. And when Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave their famous Black Power salutes on the podium the same year, their black-gloved fists were a stunning fashion statement.

Designers such as Giorgio Armani and Courreges have made Olympic clothing in the past. This summer, Reebok is providing uniforms for the U.S. basketball team, gymnastic teams from Korea, Russia and Poland, and track and field teams from Spain, Croatia, Sweden and Poland. But most of the apparel and shoes that will be seen at the Games come from the big two: Adidas and Nike. They even count their medals as if they were countries.

Adidas has the longest history with the Games, says spokeswoman Anna Quarrell. The company’s founder, Adi Dassler, introduced his first sprint spikes at the 1928 track and field competition in Amsterdam. In 1936, Jesse Owens won four gold medals wearing Adidas sneakers -- yes, the shoes were manufactured in Nazi Germany -- and by 1960 in Rome, 75% of all athletes had embraced the brand, she says. Nadia Comaneci sported the signature three stripes on her leotard when she won the first perfect “10” in gymnastics in Montreal in 1976.

Still, sports brands flew under the public radar until the 1980s, when the Games became a true marketing blitz. Rules that prevented Olympic athletes from accepting payment for endorsing or wearing products faded, and in 1984 in Los Angeles, the Levi’s name was one of the first to be featured prominently on podium jackets, as a U.S. team sponsor.

“Team uniforms have been worn from 1908 on, but the first ones were logo-less,” says Barney, who authored the 2002 book “Selling the Five Rings: The Rise of Olympic Commercialism.” “Levi’s was a big contributor to the [1984 L.A.] Olympics, which led the International Olympic Committee to make rules about how big logos could be. There are parameters for that now, both at the opening ceremonies and on the podium.”

Nike helped to usher in today’s practice of giving individual athletes endorsements by signing Michael Jordan in 1984. Prompted by Jordan’s draping an American flag over the Reebok emblem on his jacket when he was on the podium in Barcelona, Spain, in 1994, U.S. athletes had to sign a contract in 1996 agreeing not to hide their Champion logos.

This year’s Games have proved an irresistible marketing opportunity even for non-sportswear design houses such as Escada, which has a “Mykanos” accessories collection in stores now; Camper, which is promoting a special Greek sandal; and Swatch, the official Olympic timekeeper, which has rolled out a collection of watches celebrating Greek history. Menswear designer Joseph Abboud is even publicizing the fact that he’s dressing the network sportscasters.

In Athens, Nike is promoting its Swift line, which became famous in Sydney when Australian sprinter Cathy Freeman won the 400-meter in a hooded, full-body suit, and this summer when Lance Armstrong rode to his sixth Tour de France title in a cycling version. The Swift technology, tested in wind tunnels and water tanks, has been further refined so Olympic athletes will be able to go even faster, says Jordan Wand, global director of Nike’s Advanced Innovation Team.

Unlike fashion designers, sportswear designers believe “form follows function” as if it were a sacred oath. In the superhero-like track and field suits, designers used four different textured fabrics, depending on what each body part needed. “A golf ball has dimples for aerodynamics, to help it travel farther and faster. That is relevant to the body too,” Wand says. “The arms and legs of a sprinter need a rougher texture to help them move through the air.”

Wherever possible, seams were moved to the back of a garment or eliminated altogether for the sake of speed. The designers also spent time studying articulated fit. “The body position where the athlete is moving the fastest is where the suit has to fit most perfectly. Creases are bad because they cause drag,” he says.

Temperature regulation was another priority. “The challenge is to keep athletes comfortable while keeping them cooler in some places and warmer in others. Sprinters have large muscle groups they want to keep warm, but in Athens, heat is a factor.” Researchers studied where an athlete’s body would benefit most from venting and found that it’s down the spinal column and in the lumbar regions.

Finally, there was the issue of style. But only if it didn’t interfere with performance. “We view apparel as a piece of equipment, not an accessory,” Wand says gravely.

Female athletes told designers they wanted to look feminine, so their Swift suits have asymmetrical lines at the top, in contrast to the men’s, which use cleaner color blocking. Sprinters Justin Gatlin (U.S.) and Anna Guevara (Mexico) are expected to wear the track and field suits, and U.S. swimmers Haley Cope, Jason Lezak and Aaron Piersol the swim versions.

Swift suits are not available to the public.

Adidas is pinning its hopes on “ClimaCool technology,” which will be incorporated into the clothing and sneakers of U.S. gymnastics, boxing, weightlifting and fencing teams. The same technology is used in the logo-wear available to fans, including U.S. team podium jackets and pants embroidered with the Athens 2004 symbol. “The uniforms have silver-coated fibers that reflect heat away and conductive tape around the neck that cools athletes off,” Quarrell says.

U.S. Olympic sprint medalist Maurice Greene’s new Adidas competition shoe is the DeMOlisher II, with 12 red stripes on the front and a blue heel with 107 white stars. It will be in retail stores early next year. Australian swimming star Thorpe will wear the brand’s full-body “JetConcept” suit, inspired by a jetliner, which uses Lycra, a second-skin fit, flat seams and ribbed panels to channel water more efficiently over the back.

And in a true sign of how the Olympic Games have changed since the last time they were held in Athens, Nike and Adidas are making similar claims: Their suits are faster and more efficient than bare skin.