2016 Rio Olympic Parade of Nations: Trends – Part 1

“Trends” probably isn’t the best word here, considering the topic. It’s not exactly insightful to point out that uniforms have a tend to be somewhat, y’know, uniform in their sensibilities. Certain motifs are going to repeat, some of which make sense, like the use of ethnic or national costumes, some of which are total head-scratchers, like the tendency to dress athletes like concierges, and some of are just an inevitable by-product when you cross nationalism with sports. Our first entry is a good example of that.

BLUE & RED

We could do an entire post consisting of dozens of examples of this color combination among the team uniforms. Of course, it tends to make sense when you’re dealing with so many flag-based costumes, since red, white and blue are probably the most common flag colors in the western world. But even so, there tended to be a repetitive quality to the various iterations that got a little mind-numbing. Many of the teams managed to render these colors brightly and in bold patterns when they could. But these teams took the dullest route possible:

Bulgaria

Poland

Vietnam

Seychelles

They all looked like they were in the same wedding party.

And speaking of sameness…

NAVY BLUE JACKET WITH WHITE TRIM

France

Russia

South Korea

…Maybe it’s time to retire this one, teams. You all look like you got a deal at the same discount warehouse.

South Korea also happens to be sporting our next trend that needs to die:

LITTLE WHITE HATS

Czech Republic

Seriously, designers. Is there some reason you tend to confuse athletes with men’s rights activists? This one needs to go. While we can buy the argument that it’s a national identity thing with some of the Latin American countries, its ubiquity among the rest of the world’s athletes was enough for us to declare this trend OVAH.

Peru

Having said that, some of the countries managed to work them in fairly well. We were especially taken with Peru’s striped scarves paired with their wide-brimmed hats.

Puerto Rico

And it’s hard to claim that Puerto Rico’s uniforms don’t look fun, even if they do all look like they work in an ice cream parlor.

Spain

Even though we loved Spain’s uniforms, we think the hats could’ve been edited out.

Uruguay

Cruise ship employees. But really hot ones.

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

• Olympic Games 2016