VANCOUVER - From psychedelic to simplistic -- and, perhaps, a little too familiar.
The uniforms that Canadian athletes will wear during the 2010 Olympics were unveiled Thursday, featuring plain, old-fashioned designs that reach into Canada's past, which will no doubt be seen as a welcome departure from the bizarre designs worn last year in Beijing.
But one of the new logos was prompting some decidedly non-Olympic comparisons, with Opposition MPs in Ottawa suggesting it smacks of a Conservative conspiracy and others noting similarities to an iconic Canadian military symbol.
The logo in question appears on several shirts and sweatshirts in the Hudson Bay Co.'s Team Canada line, with a thick black letter C surrounding a red maple leaf in front of a white background.
At first glance, the logo looks remarkably similar to the Royal Canadian Air Force's historic emblem, still used by the air force today, which features a dark blue circle around a maple leaf.
The Conservative connection is more tenuous: the political party's logo is a stylized, slanted C around a maple leaf.
A stretch for some, but close enough for inflammatory political fodder in the House of Commons.
"Here is another embarrassing example of crass politics," Liberal MP Hedy Fry said during question period shortly after the uniforms and their retail counterparts were released on Thursday.
"Can the prime minister at least stop trying to politicize the Canadian Winter Olympics?"
The suggestion was promptly dismissed by Conservatives -- and was met with laughter from the woman who oversaw the designing of the uniforms.
"That was a first for me," said Suzanne Timmins, the Hudson Bay Co.'s fashion director, who chuckled when asked about the comparison with the Conservatives. "Certainly, that wasn't any intention on our part, not at all."
As for the air force logo, Timmins acknowledged the Olympic graphic is similar.
She insisted it was strictly a coincidence, but they were close enough that lawyers for the company and the air force sat down to talk about the resemblance. In the end, they decided the Olympic uniform logo was different enough that it could be used.
"When you're dealing with the maple leaf, red, white, black -- you're going to come across a lot of different logos that are very close to other people's logos," said Timmins.
"No, we certainly didn't want to look like the Royal Air Force or anybody else. It's such a simple graphic and there's only so much you can do."
It might strike observers as somewhat ironic that a piece of official Olympic merchandise is being compared, however accurately, to another brand.
Vancouver Olympic organizers are fiercely protective of their brand and logos, ensuring nobody is allowed to profit off anything even vaguely resembling official symbols and phrases.
They've even trademarked a line from the Canadian national anthem -- the Vancouver 2010 slogan is With Glowing Hearts -- and convinced Parliament to pass legislation protecting a list of words including "winter" and the number 2010.
Lindsay Meredith, who teaches marketing at Simon Fraser University, said it's a contradiction.
"The Olympic boys have already shown a proclivity for doing this with great abandon -- what did they grab for their slogan?" said Meredith.
"I've never seen such a litigious crowd as soon as anyone comes near their brand identity, and yet they're liberally helping themselves to somebody else's piece of pie."
Meredith agreed that the Hudson Bay Co.'s Olympic-C logo looks quite similar to the air force's, although he wasn't convinced about the Conservative comparison.
"That one strikes me as reaching," he said. "On the other hand, if you're looking for a little grist for your mill, you'll see anything you want."
The items featuring the maple leaf in the middle of a C are only a small part of the Olympic uniforms and clothing that's now for sale at Bay and Zellers stores across the country.
The product line includes sweatshirts emblazoned with a retro-looking logo spelling out "Canada," old-fashioned knit sweaters, toques, boots and mittens. Nearly all feature decidedly simple designs in reds, whites, blacks and greys.
There are also parkas and jackets for Canada's harsh winters -- although perhaps a little cosy for Vancouver's temperate climate, not to mention February rains.
Hudson's Bay Co. has exclusive rights to make clothing for Canada's Olympic athletes.
The company has been clothing this country's athletes since the 2006 Games in Torino, Italy, and their contract lasts until the London Olympics in 2012.
