Olympics 2012: Gear, garb and goods for the armchair athlete

Senior Features Writer

June 23, 2012 7:03 AM PT

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Although those of us watching the opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics aren’t likely to get our hands on the exact same clothes and accessories the athletes will be wearing as they parade into the stadium (some of which I’ve detailed in a story for Sunday’s Image section), there are plenty of purchasable options for anyone angling for a style-centric buy-in to the Olympic fervor. Among them:

A consumer version of the Puma by Cedella Marley yellow windbreaker that Jamaican athletes will wear on the medals podium at the 2012 London games is expected to hit stores (and online via Macys.com) Monday ($70), and running shoes with a design inspired by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt’s spikes are available through Puma’s own e-commerce site now.

If your tastes are more on the Marley side of the Puma/Cedella Marley partnership, you’re in luck, since the eldest daughter of late reggae legend Bob Marley has recently expanded her own clothing line by adding swimwear. The High Tide collection of bikinis and monokinis (all $59.99) is available through the Marley family’s Zion Rootswear site.

Omega, the official timekeeper of the 2012 Olympics, is marking this time around -- its 25th -- with a trio of special-edition Seamaster watches. All three are described in detail on Omega’s website, but our
hands-down (make that ‘wrists-down’) favorite is the 1948 Co-Axial ‘London 2012,’ which is a redesign of the brand’s first automatic Seamaster timepiece, issued in 1948 -- the same year London last hosted the Olympic games. It is a sleek, uncluttered and classy-looking timepiece, and the only overt reference to the Olympics is an 18-carat yellow gold medallion fixed in the caseback that’s been embossed with the London 2012 Olympic Games logo. But since it’s a limited edition --only 1,948 are being produced -- keeping time in that kind of Olympic glory comes with a price tag of $6,800. (As of this writing, the Omega boutique at the Beverly Center has all three of the above watches in stock.)

If that leaves you feeling the need to go begging -- hat in hand -- through your office cube farm for donations to an Olympic watch fund, there’s one final item to consider: the Ralph Lauren Team USA 2012 bucket hat (in navy or white, $55) from the official outfitter of the U.S. Olympic athletes.

Ralph Lauren unveils U.S. Olympic team closing ceremony garb

The big game is in Olympic merchandising

-- Adam Tschorn

All the Rage

Adam Tschorn

Senior features writer Adam Tschorn is a former small-town newspaper editor, game-show question-and-answer man and fashion scribe who joined the Los Angeles Times in 2007. He currently covers a wide range of pop-culture topics with a focus on cannabis culture. Holding a B.A. in philosophy and an M.A. in journalism, he feels perfectly suited to looking at things, asking “why?” and writing down the answers.