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© KYODOTokyo Olympic Games uniforms for 28,000 volunteers remain unused
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Hiro S Nobumasa
Give it to the homeless. Make them Olympians for a day or two.
Kumagaijin
Have some Olympians sign them and have them auctioned off. They'll be worth more.
Tom Akashi
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?)
ushosh123
Obviously wasn't going to be at bargain prices... If anything, the release to media is to pressure ASIC to authorize resale or auction.
jeancolmar
Surely there are people in need who could use those clothes.
drlucifer
Has the audited official cost been released ?
Chibakun
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.
Brian Wheway
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.
Jim
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!
smithinjapan
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.
Richard Gallagher
Mistakes will be made. Constantly. Always. Continually.
Give them to 'the homeless'.
Kyo wa heiwa dayo ne
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.
Lindsay
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.
JustAGoodOleBoy
Maybe there are some unemployed, former sumo wrestlers the 5XL box can be donated to.
Tom San
This doesn't get any better, does it?
Sven Asai
All have paid, from rich to poor, so make a lottery for all, like there was one too with the venue tickets.
sf2k
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
Maria 'Bing' Velasquez Reid
Sell through their respective stores - people may buy them. Every item
sold returns to Japan.
Wellington
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.
InspectorGadget
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.
kohakuebisu
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.
shogun36
I misread the shirt, thought it said “city cost.”
Oh they definitely cost some cities a lot of money for sure.
Cricky
Decision paralysis when there is nobody to profit from it. Leadership Japan style.
deepk
Well data speaks for itself, Asics corp net worth more than doubled
https://yhoo.it/3G133AB
didou
For those who do not know, it has been some online sale for a while.
Moskollo
Get some pen pushers to list them on eBay, get as much as you can for them and give the rest to kids..
spinningplates
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.
BlackFlagCitizen
No uniform should cost between ¥22,000 ~ ¥40,000 - people should be outraged and demand to see the bidding process paperwork.
purple_depressed_bacon
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.
tomlives
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.
Eastman
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
proxy
I would buy some of those shoes at a discount.
TrevorPeace
Turn them into baby quilts and give one to every baby born in that year. Great PR.
GW
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
Fighto!
It's really cruel to make homeless people wear Tokyo 2020 uniforms.
rainyday
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.
Kobe White Bar Owner
Sell them online. Enough nationalistic muppets here to sell 3 times as many!
gogogo
Sell them, recycle them... move on please.
itsonlyrocknroll
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.
thepersoniamnow
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?
Derek Grebe
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.
TomandJerry
As the article stated:
In other words, the contract governs if the uniforms can be resold.
Speed
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.
bo
Sell the items off and give it to a homeless charity
thepersoniamnow
They were purchased at well over a Billion Yen and at ¥2000-¥4000 a uniform.
Well the sports wear maker made off very well.
itsonlyrocknroll
Public auction, open the process to an international audience, these are one off items. Work the currencies.
Mark
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?
Chabbawanga
Lol. Its actually completely reasonable when you do the math.
Tomi
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.
Chabbawanga
I highly recommend everyone calculate the cost per uniform. Insane
Robert Cikki
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
Chico3
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.
Yukijin
Stack them next to the abe masks
Aly Rustom
send them to Thomas Bach with a payment request
HBJ
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.
bobcatfish
So they paid (more than) retail on a job lot of 50 000 from a "sponsor". Not very good negotiating skills
Kyo wa heiwa dayo ne
Article says -passing the buck.
Did they use USA dollars to purchase the uniforms.
No !
Ridiculous.
Tora
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.
momoclo
Require all government officials to wear them until they're used up as a reminder not to waste public funds.
factchecker
Burn them.
Hiro
Donate it. Pretty of people need it. Plus there are fans out there willing to buy some. Just put it online for sale.
Asiaman7
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.”
Good
Xmas presents for parking attendant ojisanz all over Japan!