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Tokyo Olympic Games uniforms for 28,000 volunteers remain unused

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Xmas presents for parking attendant ojisanz all over Japan!

14 ( +20 / -6 )

Municipalities surveyed are now struggling to find ways to put the 2020 Tokyo Games items, purchased with taxpayers money, to good use. The cost of one uniform set varies between 22,000 and 40,000 yen.

Sell them online (if the “strict rules of the organizing committee” will allow)! Municipalities might be able to recoup 10 to 30 percent of the cost, depending on the content of the “uniform set.”

17 ( +17 / -0 )

Donate it. Pretty of people need it. Plus there are fans out there willing to buy some. Just put it online for sale.

24 ( +24 / -0 )

Burn them.

-27 ( +6 / -33 )

Require all government officials to wear them until they're used up as a reminder not to waste public funds.

48 ( +50 / -2 )

The cheapest a couple of man and up to 4 ichis ? That's mad. Could have outsourced to Uniqlo. No way those should be costing more than a man for the entire uniform! Somebody literally swimming in pork fat. As a tax payer in this country, I'm pretty pissed about this.

28 ( +30 / -2 )

Article says -passing the buck.

Did they use USA dollars to purchase the uniforms.

No !

Ridiculous.

-17 ( +5 / -22 )

So they paid (more than) retail on a job lot of 50 000 from a "sponsor". Not very good negotiating skills

28 ( +29 / -1 )

So they paid (more than) retail on a job lot of 50 000 from a "sponsor". Not very good negotiating skills

The purpose of the Olympic opportunity isn’t to negotiate best prices from domestic sponsors - it’s to enrich them and buy / maintain / reward their political support.

29 ( +29 / -0 )

send them to Thomas Bach with a payment request

22 ( +25 / -3 )

Stack them next to the abe masks

21 ( +22 / -1 )

The purpose of the Olympic opportunity isn’t to negotiate best prices from domestic sponsors - it’s to enrich them and buy / maintain / reward their political support.

Political support in this country is a joke. Do people really think the politicians here really look out for us, or just pass the gavel to the next person. My wife just votes with not much of any expectations.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

More than 1.7 billion yen was spent in procuring the uniforms, with Japan preparing for at least 48,000 volunteers

I guess I'm not good at math somehow, because a simple division gives me an astronomical amount for one uniform. I can't believe it....

....No, not really. The total cost of the uniforms was much lower, but the rest was split by various politicians, organizers, surplus staff, etc. I've seen so many situations like this in three decades that I'm not really surprised anymore. If the citizens pay for it and don't even mind, then why not actually rip them off. No one here is going to dispute that, questioning and asking how that is possible. When politicians throw helicopter money around again in some form, people will forget the previous excesses. And the most that will happen is that someone will say "but we couldn't have known" or "exceptional situation". しょうがない and stuff

12 ( +14 / -2 )

I highly recommend everyone calculate the cost per uniform. Insane

15 ( +16 / -1 )

Why did we ever needed this Olympic on the first place?

They bid with my tax money to do it without ever holding a taxpayer’s referendum on it.

This despite a 200% debt of the annual GDP.

14 ( +17 / -3 )

Lol. Its actually completely reasonable when you do the math.

-14 ( +0 / -14 )

Now how could this be so complicated!? it was purchased with tax payers money , it should be auctioned and the $money will go back to the tax payers treasury, what is so difficult about that?

13 ( +14 / -1 )

Public auction, open the process to an international audience, these are one off items. Work the currencies.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

They were purchased at well over a Billion Yen and at ¥2000-¥4000 a uniform.

Well the sports wear maker made off very well.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Sell the items off and give it to a homeless charity

1 ( +2 / -1 )

When you're spending other people's money - us taxpayers' to be precise - it's not surprising that they spent up to 40,000 yen for these ugly polyester checkered flag things that no one from this planet would even buy for 400 yen.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Now how could this be so complicated!? it was purchased with tax payers money , it should be auctioned and the $money will go back to the tax payers treasury, what is so difficult about that?

As the article stated:

 the municipalities that signed the sales contract with Asics.

In other words, the contract governs if the uniforms can be resold.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Why, it's almost like ploughing ahead with the Olympics when 80% of the taxpaying public didn't want to shows a total contempt for the taxpayers.

If I didn't know better, this would look like a heist with corruption at every step, right up to the hghest levels of government.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Wow so ¥20,000-¥40,000, I totally misread.

Perhaps some should be investigated for massively inflating the cost?

Is there no accountability?

Why we melting phones and recycling gold if we throw the money away after?

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Ask the Tokyo/Japan Olympic Squad to model and individually sign each and every one, all, plus medal winners state in one sentence, most memorable moment.

Present boxed accordingly.

I would buy them all, you will clean up.

All down to marketing and presentation. Photo with the J athlete in question.

There is always a market for this type of Olympic memorabilia.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Sell them, recycle them... move on please.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Sell them online. Enough nationalistic muppets here to sell 3 times as many!

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Sapporo in northern Japan, for one, has donated approximately 100 of 145 uniforms 

Think about this for a second. It means that while one department in the Sapporo city government is still struggling to deal with the waste and sheer stupidity of the 2020 games, another one is busy trying to prepare a bid for the 2030 games.

This just makes my head explode.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

Sell the items off and give it to a homeless charity

It's really cruel to make homeless people wear Tokyo 2020 uniforms.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

I can assure you all the supposed cost of those uniforms is actually much much lower, the prices quoted are inflated retail, even so, waste is waste & these games generated tons & tons of it, from food to uniforms piles of garbage & leftovers were more than substantial, trust me you DONT want to know what goes on behind the scenes, the waste generated & the $$ wasted will ruin much more than just a day or two......

But HEY remember we had those cardboard beds, but they wont tell you the rooms they were used in were also temporary & are or will be all ripped out of all the rooms, think truck loads of 2x4s, drywall, wiring etc etc parades of trucks carry out of the village, its beyond obscene

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Turn them into baby quilts and give one to every baby born in that year. Great PR.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I would buy some of those shoes at a discount.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

another evidence of tax waste.

as usual no one held responsible.

for media main problem is not why and who organized this nice business with taxpayers money but what to do with it...so pathetic

1 ( +3 / -2 )

My wife volunteered. Some of the kit is pretty good. The shoes are cool and they'd sell them easily. The hats and pants too are really good, and could be sold. But the tops are too heavily emblazoned with the Olympics to be deemed fashionable. Those may need to be destroyed, or refashioned into lintless window wipes.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

So that's where my hard earned money has gone to. Ffs.

Get some of them autographed by an Olympic athlete and then auction them off. Then put the money from the auction back into society. It really isn't that difficult of an idea.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

No uniform should cost between ¥22,000 ~ ¥40,000 - people should be outraged and demand to see the bidding process paperwork.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

More massive waste of public funds.

I agree witht the above, there needs to be an inquiry as to exactly how this cost so much, who recieved kickbacks and why measures weren't taken to cancel production.

They must be re-purposed for any and all events that require such uniforms.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Get some pen pushers to list them on eBay, get as much as you can for them and give the rest to kids..

4 ( +4 / -0 )

For those who do not know, it has been some online sale for a while.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Well data speaks for itself, Asics corp net worth more than doubled

https://yhoo.it/3G133AB

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Decision paralysis when there is nobody to profit from it. Leadership Japan style.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I misread the shirt, thought it said “city cost.”

Oh they definitely cost some cities a lot of money for sure.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

No uniform should cost between ¥22,000 ~ ¥40,000 - people should be outraged and demand to see the bidding process paperwork.

Yes, most of these uniforms would be for about 10 days' use maximum.

Uniqlo, or even better Workman, could have produced them for a few thousand.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Donate the clothes to impoverished countried.

Three years we will see rag-tag seperatist rebels heavily armed with AK-47s and RPG-7s looking like they were sponsored by the IOC.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I would price the uniforms at 2020 Yen per set to remember what should have been the 2020 Olympics.

(What they paid for them is really irrelevant to someone buying them.)

Find a partner that could make a clever marketing campaign for a % of the sales and reasonable handling fees that they would charge be able to keep.

Donating the proceeds to charity would be a great idea.

It is better than throwing them out.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Sell through their respective stores - people may buy them. Every item

sold returns to Japan.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

sell online, mark it up to cover the costs. It's a unique item and will sell just fine. The problem is that they have to do something, not that there isn't a solution

2 ( +2 / -0 )

All have paid, from rich to poor, so make a lottery for all, like there was one too with the venue tickets.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This doesn't get any better, does it?

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Maybe there are some unemployed, former sumo wrestlers the 5XL box can be donated to.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Donate them to one of the aid organizations for homeless and destitute people. Oh, that’s right! Japan doesn’t have any of these organizations.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

What uniforms could possibly be more Nostalgic that wasted tax payers money of the Japan Olympics uniforms during a world pandemic whilst people were ignored and left quietly at home to perish from an avoidable virus infection .

Thanks alot Suga !

Better turn that negative into a positive and sell sell sell those uniforms.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Mistakes will be made. Constantly. Always. Continually.

Give them to 'the homeless'.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Maybe Sapporo can promise to use them (as undergarments) for the 2030 Winter Games, should they be selected, since they have vowed to keep costs down and what not.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

The Tokyo Olympics was a farce! Tax payers money wasted on this big party for the IOC executive! Volunteers and athletes never made any serious impact in this game! The only positive for the people in Japan was that Japan won more medals than previously. What was suppose to bring money for many businesses and people turned out to cost them dearly!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

uniforms are to be used even if that may be a time-consuming task.

really? just put an add on face book marketing page, there are plenty of selling sites, just list them come and get them at say, 7000 yen just to get rid of them because its cost more to store them.

when they are posted to a buyer, send them out in a brown paper wrapping, the brown paper wrapping should have all of the names of the people printed on the wrapping, that were involved with the negotiating team and the officials that were involved with olympic games on it, it will be nice to remind those that were involved with the fiasco they wont be forgotten. Or you could send the uniforms out in a brown bag with yen note printed all over it. yes I know that is a bit sarcastic!!

if there is any of these uniforms left, 1: give them to the homeless 2: childrens school, 3; any one who wants one come and get them.

lets put them to good use rather than paying more money to store them next to the Abe masks in a dusty wharehouse.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This is how business is conducted in Japan. It shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone.

It's just the tip of the iceberg for the Olympics and business in general.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Zichi

Mostly a consequence of the pandemic. The sportswear was produced for the games in 2020. Part of the $15.4 billion, cost of the games.

Has the audited official cost been released ?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Surely there are people in need who could use those clothes.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Obviously wasn't going to be at bargain prices... If anything, the release to media is to pressure ASIC to authorize resale or auction.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Sell them at a low price (at cost). I would buy one for a Halloween costume. The government can do the same with the remaining Abe masks, as they can be used to make other things (quilt, curtains, etc?)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Have some Olympians sign them and have them auctioned off. They'll be worth more.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Give it to the homeless. Make them Olympians for a day or two.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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