Olympic odd lot - What's New? Winter Gear & Food Fest - Winter Olympics merchandise - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Jan, 2002

The Winter Olympics are about to overrun Utah in February, and already the hucksters are pushing tie-in merchandise to support the U.S. Ski Team. The sweaters and T-shirts make sense, but some of the other items trigger serious headscratching to find the relevance. After all, why would even the most-dedicated golfer want Ski Team golf balls? Let's just assume there's a market out there for everything and take a look at some of the goods you'll soon be seeing, especially if you make it to the Games themselves.

For warmth, there are vests with the Ski Team logo, either a navyblue Polartec model ($61) or a bright-red nylon one with a blue stripe across the chest ($59). A white mock turtleneck undershirt ($39) has the logo on one cuff. Over-the-calf socks ($18) come with either red-white-and-blue vertical stripes or blue and red ones. To top off this ensemble, a black baseball cap ($22) is adorned with the Ski Team logo in the back, off-center USA 2002 lettering in front with the Olympic rings, and, for some reason, a red insert with a black spider on the other side.

If you're into non-clothing souvenirs, there is a trio of stuffed creatures--Shredder (black with a red Mohawk hairdo), Flash (all white with a Smurf-like coiffure), and Star (bright pink with long ears, wearing singlets bearing either the U.S. Ski Team or Snowboarding Team logo in front and the Kodak symbol in the back, free with any order from the website. The U.S. Ski Team Fisher Space Pen ($18) is bullet-shaped and can write at any angle, including upside down. And, of course, there are an assortment of pins for collectors.

All of these souvenirs and more are available online at www.usski team.com. Proceeds go towards America's Olympic hopefuls.