I heard this too and thought it was an outrage. Disgusting!

It's wong!  Raplh Lauren should be hog-tied for agreeing to the deal.

Not only that - Chinese clothing manufacturers shamelessly cut corners on seam allowance.  I hope none of the athletes bend over too far.  Their pants will split!

Chinese manufacturing is criminally cheap. I've bought athletic shoes made in China to discover they are lined with cardboard. 

Notebook paper is so thin the holes break out after turning three times.

Since US Oolympic athletes are not government funded, the olympic commitrtee elected to get cheap uniforms that are cheaply fabricated in China.  Ralph Lauren had a contract with the US olympic committee that runs until 2020.  there is a US company  that said they could make new uniforms and have them in  time for the summer olympics  (this same company is also in negotiations for the Russian olympic uniforms for 2014, Russia appearently does not want their uniforms made in China either).  Will wait and see what happens.

 Not only is it WRONG, it is incredibly STUPID!

I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would think this was a good idea...

It's not right ! So remember this come November when you go to vote. Exercise your right to VOTE and see if we can educate the ignorant and do something about it! Just sayen...

Ralph Lauren has lost his mind.  These uniforms look like something out of 'Paris is Burning.' " In the category of Real Real" -  Voguing with The Toy Yacht Club.  The stingy cut of the so-called blazers looks like somebody was trying to save on fabric. And please dear God spare me are the collars rounded???

Look at the jacket length on the guy third from the left.  It looks like a novelty t-shirt done like a blazer.  

Berets?  These are beanies.  Where are the propellers?

The women's uniform looks like a boarding school uniform.  What is that an ascot for crying out loud??? Creepy.

The only reason I voted "No" is because I couldn't vote "H _ _ _  No !!". The hats are embarassingly stupid. Nuff said !!!

Lets look at this objectively. The Olympics are funded by donations. Material and clothing are either personally owned or provided by the committee. Funds are LIMITED.  Why the outcry now and not in previous years, those materials/clothing were purchased from "other" countries? Travel,food,cost of living etc. are a huge budget expense. I would rather see our athletes there competing than not having enough money to send them.

For 'us' cops, look at the labels on your uniforms. Made in Pakistan, India, China, Malaysia etc.  If I rip  a shirt and have to  purchase another  at my expense, guess what, its going to  be in my budget no matter where its  made.

 I'd rather have seen the business stay in the U.S.  Made in America should be proudly emblazoned on those Olympic unifroms.

MarlyB says ...

Looking at it objectively, donations are probably substantial enough to accomodate a budget for USA manufacture.  (Anyone investigated thoroughly??)

Looking at it objectively, probably neither an 'either or', nor 'live with it or do without' choice can justify a convenient farm-out to China.

Rather...probably a choice of contractual convenience??

Looking at it objectively, when contracting for"Made in China" carries a central unwanted message underscoring American job loss, a 'tardy' complaint is better than no complaint.

That includes the label inside a law enforcement officer's uniform.  As they say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

 

I never said I agreed or it was justified from a patriotic/pr standpoint. I merely offered reasons. Why are so many items made in foreign countries and imported? Simple, the  American consumer wants a decent product at a low price. If  American citizens put their patriotic mouth where their wallets are this would be a non issue.

In the case of the Olympic uniforms, Ralph Lauren seemed contented to pocket the cost conscious part of it and not pass any of it (in the spirit of patriotism?) onto the Olympic committee. I don't have the details in front of me, but I remember seeing an article a few days ago that showed a table that broke down what each item cost Ralph Lauren vs what they charged the Olympic committee. It was obvious they didn't have a lot of team spirit.

Why can't we use the Olympic Stage to show our pride in American Enterprise ? Outsourcing gone worldwild and too comfortable! Next time lets show what we can do in USA USA !

Well yeah sure lets indict the consumer as the sole cause of the trade deficit. Not that your average Walmart consumer has much choice no matter how hard they squawk.  You don't even see American-made clothespins alongside China made.  Reason?

Umm..."Buy Bamboo".  Just to prove bamboo's superiority, displayed right alongside are badly made, badly finished, light-weight Chinese wooden ones that look like splinters waiting to happen.  You pays your money yada yada. Ok, so -Clean manufacturing? Wonder what belches into the air to make 'bamboo everything'  Not to mention electronic everything.  Over "there".  Where you can't see your hand in front of your face.

Whose zoomin' who?

Of course, the whole China-made doesn't happen by magic - does it? 

Nope. I druther take a closer look at the phenomenal US debt to China and how increased imports of China-manufactured goods might be intended to help offset that debt.  Thus blowing up the trade deficit. Not that past and present administrations have had anything to do with encouraging THAT particular trade off. 

Of course there's that magnificent savings on labor AND escaping the bother of all those pesky workplace regulations here in the US.  BTW, the Chinese Factories Tour Bus Fleet leaves at noon.

Course, makes biz a lot easier if contracts don't get bogged down under all them 'free enterprise factors', right?  Contracts?  China can contract before you can blink an eye.  A little thing called a totalitarian state.  Great for cutting red tape.  Line forms on the... LEFT.  (Sorry, couldn't help it.)

Like MarlyB pretty much stated, the China/Us manufacturing trade issue is beyond complicated in a thousand different ways. Just on a population factor China outnumbers Us nearly 3 to 1. The last 20 years China has boomed in manufacturing, Why? Cuz they have thousands of factories ready to mass produce anything from Nike's to Kathy Lee Gifford pants and most likely the computer you're using right now to read this. We can't compete with numbers on that scale. If you think about how we've used China as an easy source of credit to keep things going it's even worse. We're playing a bad game of Monopoly, sure we got Boardwalk and Park Place, but they mean nothing when the rest of the board has been bought up and we keep landing on those spots. Our only export to the world is bad TV shows like Baywatch and Jersy Shore. It just tells the world how easy it really is, to get us to do something stupid. I cross my fingers and hope for the best, but expect the worst.