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For all the stamina, perseverance and pain endured, it should've been a Winter Olympic sport. Olympic souveniers
are selling fastBy Lucy Young-Oda
lyoungoda@starbulletin.comAnd, well, to some it was: finding that elusive blue, red and white $20 beret fashioned by Roots, official outfitter of the U.S. Olympic team.
You've seen them on the athletes, in coverage of the Games, all over the opening ceremonies.
They're hot, hot, hot. They also happen to be gone, gone, gone.
At least they were from the Olympics Superstore, the 47,000-square-foot souvenir pavilion at the Olympic Square in downtown Salt Lake City.
The place was constantly packed, with lines just to enter.
"I feel like a salmon swimming upstream," one man said as he jostled against the shopper tide.
But intrepid beret fans have found their way to two small Roots outlets in the nearby Gateway shopping mall. Here, they spend some three hours waiting in line -- only semiprotected against rainy 40-degree weather -- for the privilege of buying just one adult and/or child's beret. The limit allows Roots to release a couple hundred berets nightly to the hardiest of consumer competitors.
Calvin and Kristine Murdock, brother and sister from Idaho, got straight off the plane from a Honolulu vacation and headed right to the Roots store.
They said they waited more than three hours for the prize: one beret each.
Was it worth it?
"Definitely!" they enthused, as the crowd line cheered them exiting the store.
Other items getting attention here were Wasatch Brewing Co.'s line of Polygamy Beer and related $20 T-shirts, an irreverent counter to Salt Lake City's Mormon image. Another company's line boasts the popular "St. Provo Girl" beer motto and logo.
Berets aside, the Olympics are full of logo and souvenir items, many sporting the Games' animal mascots Powder, Copper and Coal. The keepsakes are flying off shelves at the Superstore and other outlets. A sampling:
>> Fleece cap: $32
>> Socks: $5 to $10
>> Collector pins: $5 to $10 average
>> Waist pack: $27.50
>> Skis: $745; snowboard, $530
>> Lanyards: $13
>> Cheering (cow) bells: $12-$60
>> Adult T-shirts: $20
>> Thermos: $37.50
>> Leather-bound flask: $33
>> Mascot bobblehead figure: $10