Uniformed Opinion

So there I was staring at the fan on the weekend when all of a sudden, some stinky stuff hit it.  Sometimes there are decisions made in some far off boardroom and you just have to give your head a shake and wonder, who in the world thought that was a good idea?  Last week Canada's oldest retailer, the Hudson Bay Company, was reeling when the news got out that the uniforms they were going to dress our Olympic athletes in were mostly made in China.  I guess to someone it made some sense since the games are being held there, maybe the athletes can just pick them up at door in Beijing and save on shipping costs?  The Hudson Bay Company won the right to dress our Olympic athletes in 2005.  They paid a lot of money to be the official clothing supplier and no one told them they had to make the stuff in Canada.  So they had 80% of the 25 piece uniform made in China.  They claimed it was because the eco-friendly materials used in the clothes isn't easily available here, including using bamboo.  Since, for those of you who don't know, bamboo is a very popular Canadian tree.  Oh that's right, it's not.  I guess Canada doesn't have any eco-friendly materials??? So now back to the boardroom.  At what point in the meeting did someone say, "look, we can save millions if we just dress our Canadian athletes, paid for by the Canadian taxpayer in clothes, made in China".  Did anyone in that meeting suggest that the optics of that aren't great?  At a time when Ontario and Quebec are hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs and the Canadian textile industry is reeling because of cheap products made abroad, this would have been the opportune time for someone to invest in Canada. Especially since, it's our money.  It's our money that funds the athletes and if HBC hope to sell some of these Olympic clothing items to us it will be our money they'll pocket.  The Olympics is a wonderful world stage to show off some Canadian products.  Our athletes have to be Canadian to compete at the Olympics for us, shouldn't the clothes they wear also reflect where they're from.  Roots Canada, who actually had the contract before the Hudson Bay Company, used the Olympic stage to make a fortune.  They created uniforms for various Canadian teams that translated into great sales of their products.  Remember the beret that was so popular people were stealing them in the athletes village?  So Canada's oldest company, supplying uniforms to Canada's Olympic team decided to have the clothes made in China.  Should that basic statement not have raised a red flag in that board room meeting.  Or at the very least, a red and white flag with a little red maple leaf on it.  Oh that's right, that flag was probably made in China as well so what does it matter.  Listen, in this age of the global economy, we all buy stuff that's made all over the world.  I get that and I get that money is an issue.  It's an issue for manufacturers and it's an issue for people buying the stuff.  However, when you're entrusted to outfit a country's team that would be the perfect opportunity to highlight that country's top outfitters.  Having our athletes march in front of the world in their clothes would have been their Olympics.  For their part the Hudson Bay Company says that none of the clothes were made by child labor or forced labor and the factories they use pay a decent wage.  Which in China is, like a dollar a day.  The people in the board room who made this idiotic decision, made more money than that just getting out their made in China pens to write on their made in China note pads that we should have the uniforms made in China.  And for that they win the Olympic gold for stupidity. Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !