by 2010vanfan

Well, I am nearly stumped.  I was hoping to talk about the upcoming release of the Vancouver 2010 Team Canada uniforms, because, I thought, the designs and the clothing itself was going to be announced soon.  But when I go looking for information on the plans I can’t find anything.  Now, the uniforms may not seem like a big deal to you, but this is what the athletes, coaches and training staff will essentially live in for the duration of the Olympic or Paralympic Games, and it can be significant!

The Hudson’s Bay Company will be clothing and supplying luggage to our Canadian Team, a right they gained in 2005 and will maintain until London 2012.  Team Canada consists of our athletes, as coaches and training staff.  In Torino 2006 the clothing supplied to each Canadian Team member consisted of a 45 piece package (not including their luggage!)!  This included lounge wear, indoor and outdoor jackets, sweaters, pants, shoes, toques, mitts, scarves… really anything they could need.  There is also the “Parade Wear” for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and “Medal Wear” should an athlete make it to the podium (I hope HBC is stocked up!).  The Parade and Medal wear are for athletes only and replicas will not be available in store, something that makes these items very special to the athletes.

Traditionally the Parade and Medal wear uniforms are not put on display until the Opening Ceremonies of the Games, so that also makes them extra special.  We won’t be seeing Canada’s Parade wear until sometime after 7pm on February 12, 2010!  And I’ll be there!  Maybe I’ll be able to tweet a photo of them as they come out (@2010vanfan, though I think I may have to work on my twittering skills…).

The Canadian Team uniforms on the other hand are generally released well in advance of the Olympics (gives us a chance to dress ourselves up like our favourite Olympians and Paralympians!).  And I think it’s coming up soon, which would explain why I’m excited.  But not finding anything written down anywhere makes me nervous that I have mis-understood something, so since it’s a bit late to be calling around trying to sort this out, I will work on it tomorrow and have an answer for you (my intuition is we may be hearing in October, hmm… getting awfully close).  Mostly, I don’t want you (or me) to miss the unveiling, so I will be sure to let you know when I do.

Alright… other excitement… The Team Canada Women’s Hockey Team had a day off of games today in the Hockey Canada Cup, but resume tomorrow in a game against the USA at 7:30pm!  Finland plays Sweden at 3pm.  Now, the sad thing about this is that for the Canada vs USA game, they have only sold about 5,000 tickets  ($20 each for tickets before fees and taxes) in a stadium that can hold 19,000.  And apparently about the same number for the Gold Medal match on Sunday (7:30pm – tickets are only $35 before taxes and fees).  Plus there are semi-final games on Saturday and the Bronze Medal match on Sunday.  There are still a lot of games of some really great hockey!!  I understand that not everyone can make it out in the middle of the week, but certainly one of the weekend games is do-able!  Got kids?  Go to a 3:00pm game!  The tickets are all really well priced (I’ll even say cheap!) and you’ll be supporting Women’s Hockey in Canada and seeing a great game to boot!  Go!  Get your tickets!! (Yes, I mean now and yes, I’m bossy!)

That’s most of the excitement, but I do have an interview coming up that I think you’ll be interested in.  I’m going to keep the interviewee a little hush hush right now ’cause I haven’t done it yet, but I’m looking forward to the opportunity.  Oh, and I got to talk to Andrew Kollo today, aka PinHunter.  He was really great to talk to and if you are interested in pins he’s got a great website.  Check it out at PinCollectorSite.com.  He really is passionate about pins and puts a lot of work in.

Thank you and merci for reading.  Talk to you tomorrow.