In Romney-helmed games, Olympic uniforms outsourced to Burma

Romney celebrates with children from the 'Children's Dance Theater' in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 15, 1999, during the unveiling of three new mascots for the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympics.

/ GEORGE FREY/AFP/Getty Images

(CBS News) Last Friday, amid uproar over news that this year's U.S. Olympic opening ceremony uniforms were made in China, Mitt Romney remained noticeably mum on the issue.

Asked by CBS News' Jan Crawford if the U.S. Olympics team uniforms should be made in America, Romney, who was the president and CEO of the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2002, declined to weigh in.

"I don't know the particulars of the circumstance so I really can't comment on that," Romney told Crawford. "I presume they have sponsors who are associated with uniforms and matters of that nature so I'm not going to weigh in to the decision."

(Watch Crawford's interview with Romney in the video to the left.)

That the 2012 uniforms were not made in the U.S. is not without precedent: Ralph Lauren, which has made the Olympic uniforms for three games running (and is also set to make them in 2014), outsourced production of the uniforms in 2008 and 2010 as well, according to the New York Times.

And in 2002, when Romney was at the helm of the Salt Lake City Olympics, the outfits were produced in Burma, as the Huffington Post pointed out last night.

Romney on Olympics uniforms made in China: No comment
What was Romney's role at Bain during outsourcing?

This fact was a source of some protest in 2002, particularly given the Burmese government's history of dictatorship and long track record of human rights violations. A 2002 story from the Los Angeles Times reported on groups protesting the uniforms, made by Marker Outerwear, "because of the uniform maker's alleged ties to inhumane working conditions in Myanmar."

In a Sunday story, the Guardian UK quoted Susan Bonfield, a torch carrier for the 2002 games, remembering her outrage at seeing the 2002 uniform labels. (The Daily Kos, a liberal website, posted a picture of what appears to be the uniform and its label, which reads "Made in Burma (Myanmar)".)

"When I looked at the label for the uniform, I went nuts. When you are sending work representing the US to a military dictatorship, I have an issue with that," she told the Guardian.

The decade-old controversy has particular resonance at the moment, not only because of the kerfuffle over the 2012 uniforms, but also due to questions surrounding Romney's history at Bain Capital and whether or not he was involved with controversial company decisions, some of which resulted in outsourced labor.

The Romney campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

[MrEdgarPerez]

With many Americans still unemployed, many think the U.S. Olympic Committee should have off-shored American jobs make uniforms for American athletes in China. What do you think? Should we burn or wear the uniforms made in China? Join the debate next Tuesday 24 in New York City: http://******/LYNXPM

[MrEdgarPerez]

With many Americans still unemployed, many think the U.S. Olympic Committee should have off-shored American jobs make uniforms for American athletes in China. What do you think? Should we burn or wear the uniforms made in China? Join the debate next Tuesday 24 in New York City: http://******/LYNXPM

[pserafin]

The United States Olympic Committee makes the decisions on athletic wear purchases. Mitt Romney was president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. A big difference. The only thing Romney controlled was mainly fund raising. His immediate supervisors were the IOC He had no input into anything to do with the athletes. If the Olympic Games were held in another country for that year they would not have even hired Romney. If your reporter had done a little bit of research she would have found this out. But again it takes non-reporters to do their jobs. Here is a website I found in about 20 seconds concerning just that: http://www.olympic.org/Documents/Reference_documents_Factsheets/Roles_and_responsabilities.pdf
Next time, I hope your reporters do a little research before they play gotcha journalism. I would expect a retraction. Know wonder why the public hold TV news and newspapers in such low reguard.

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

Another attempt at making sure Mitt is Responsible for NOTHING!

Who will be the Responsible one if Mitt is President?

[RollotheNorman]

All, the RepubliCON members of Congress can say is: Ooops!

[CallmeConservative]

USOC makes ALL uniform decisions...Mr. Romney ran the SLOO...do your research before opening your yap.

[TStewartIII3]

NewsBusters: CBS Hints That Romney Is To Blame For 2002 US Olympic Uniform Outsourcing
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan/2012/07/17/cbs-hints-romney-blame-2002-us-olympic-uniform-outsourcing

[TimeToEvolve]

So this outsourcing was totally consistent with Governor Etch a Sketch. You really have to wonder whether Robme cares about America or Americans at all.

[CallmeConservative]

USOC makes ALL uniform decisions...Mr. Romney ran the SLOO...do your research before opening your yap.

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

OMG! He was CEO but he wasn't really responsible...LOL...because he was head of the Olympics....BUT he wasn't responsible there either!

I think we need a RESPONSIBLE President for our country!

OBAMA 2012 : )

[CallmeConservative]

USOC makes ALL uniform decisions...Mr. Romney ran the SLOO...do your research before opening your yap.

[liberalmike]

Mr outsourcer himself romney, surely knew about where those uniforms were made and he is probably solely responsible.

[CallmeConservative]

USOC makes ALL uniform decisions...Mr. Romney ran the SLOO...do your research before opening your yap.

[ladyang]

Were we supposed to be doing business with Burma back in '02?

[caveman567]

Romney probably had off shore acounts in Burma thus the uniforms were there back in 2002..

[WHAT-IS-HE-SMOKING]

So let's see, Mitty was not in charge of Bain since 1999 but he still signed the paperwork stating he was until 2002, and then he was in charge of the Olympics for 2 years and never asked about the uniforms. Makes sense.

[stormerF69]

You want to get rid of outsourceing you would have to fire all the politicans in Washington and the President,Grow up we live in a world Economy,it is not Romney's fault,want to go back go back to Clinton He signed NAFTA.

[WHAT-IS-HE-SMOKING]

by stormerF69 July 17, 2012 1:28 PM EDT
You want to get rid of outsourceing you would have to fire all the politicans in Washington and the President,Grow up we live in a world Economy,it is not Romney's fault,want to go back go back to Clinton He signed NAFTA.

You may want to check the facts of what has been happening with regards to bringing jobs back to the U.S. But no one wants to give credit to Obama now do they?

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2012/06/13/8-employers-that-are-bringing-jobs-back-to-america/
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/business&id=8547377
http://www.dallasnews.com/business/columnists/jim-landers/20120116-companies-focus-on-bringing-jobs-back-to-america.ece
http://www.areadevelopment.com/siteSelection/dec09/united-states-manufacturing-insouring-costs1102.shtml
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304587704577333482423070376.html