Spyder & Eric Haze Debut U.S. Alpine, Freestyle, Freeski Team Olympic Uniforms

Spyder, one of the world’s most recognizable active lifestyle brands, today unveiled the U.S. Alpine Ski Team, U.S. Freestyle Ski Team, and U.S. Freeski Team uniforms for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. The U.S. Olympic Alpine Ski Team nominations will be announced on Jan. 20, and U.S. Freestyle Ski Team and U.S. Freeski Team nominations will be announced on Jan. 21. Volcom was announced earlier this week as the producer of the U.S. Snowboard Team uniforms.

Spyder, which is owned by Authentic Brands Group (ABG), has been an official apparel partner of the U.S. Ski Team since 1989 and will be represented by more than 60 Olympic athletes. The uniforms are designed by world-renowned artist and designer, Eric Haze. Haze is a New York City native, who has lent his unique artistic style to everything from album art to internationally recognizable brands.

Legendary News York artist and designer Eric Haze began his career in the early 80s, exhibiting artwork alongside friends like Keith Haring and Jean Michael Basquiat. After founding a design studio in the late 80s, then his own clothing label in the 90s, best known for his iconic hand lettering, Haze remains one of the most sought-after creatives in the worlds of contemporary art, design and artist driven brand collaborations.

“It’s such an incredible honor to put my fingerprints on the U.S. Alpine Ski Team, U.S. Freestyle Ski Team, and U.S. Freeski Team uniforms, especially when they’ll be wearing them on such a huge world stage as the Beijing Olympic Games. I can’t wait to see the teams actually competing in them," notes Eric Haze.

Inspired by the American flag, the collection features outerwear, base layers, and accessories that are sustainable, technically advanced, and stylish. Eric’s iconic lettering, signature STAR icon, and hand-painted pattern work can be found on all the collection pieces.

“February of 2022 will be our ninth Olympic Games outfitting the U.S. Ski Team and with each Games, our goal is to provide products that give our athletes a competitive advantage while incorporating comfort and protection from the cold,” said Brady Collings, Global GM of Spyder. “This year is no exception and working with Eric Haze has allowed us to bring a fresh design perspective while infusing the technology and performance the athletes and the team expect from Spyder. This collection will give our athletes the edge they need to perform at their best and bring home the gold.”

The 2022 Spyder Team Collection is outfitted with Spyder’s latest technology and highest-performing materials to date. Every detail of all 29 styles of the collection including the apparel and goggles were developed with direct athlete feedback and uses discipline-specific functionality.

“Spyder and Eric Haze have created an amazing collection by blending fashion and function that represents the U.S. in all aspects — allowing our athletes to look and feel their best,” added Wesley Chu, SVP of APAC, Spyder, and Volcom at ABG. “We look forward to watching them compete next month.”

All outerwear styles are composed of Gore-Tex fabrics, Primaloft ECO insulation, and YKK zippers. The U.S. Freestyle Ski Team and U.S. Freeski Team outerwear uses 100% recycled polyester fabric with Gore-Tex Laminate and PFCecFree DWR and PrimaLoft SilverECO insulation, and the U.S. Alpine Ski Team outerwear uses a brand new engineered woven face fabric with Gore-Tex Laminate and PFCecFree DWR. A new baselayer technology will be introduced as well, in a cut-resistant, proprietary Kevlar/graphene stretch knit pant.

For the first time in Spyder’s history, the brand designed, developed, and produced an aerials one-piece kit and a skier cross race suit, both of which use individual athlete measurements to optimize performance and fit. The fit in the pants and training shorts in all three disciplines was designed to optimize comfort, warmth, and performance specific to each sport. The center-back full-length zipper on the alpine athletes’ outerwear jacket increases the functional fit while the athletes are wearing their back protectors and race suits during pre-race warmups. To complete the uniform, Spyder and Eric Haze partnered with Dragon to design the NFX Spyder Goggles. The goggles feature a frameless lens providing added peripheral vision giving athletes the ability to locate the best lines on the mountain. In addition to the googles, a new optical style that comes in a classic, modified rectangle shape and three metal colorations will also be making its debut.

Michael O’Conor, Chief Revenue Officer at U.S. Ski & Snowboard concluded “Spyder created yet another incredible series of Olympic uniforms for our alpine, freestyle and freeski teams and we’ll be proud to see them on the athletes at the Games. As a 30+ year partner of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, it’s amazing to see Spyder continue to innovate with us every day.”

 

 

Share This Article