If there’s one thing the American sports fan does well it’s riding the hell out of a good bandwagon. I’m an expert at spotting a moving bandwagon because well, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the current Warriors/Sharks/San Francisco Giants/soon to be Oakland Raiders (trust me, it’ll happen come fall) diehards fanatic is riding high on life. The same goes for World Cup fever in America, where every fourth year team USA supporters watch 90 minutes of people kicking a ball in the center of a stadium, drink profusely, get pissed that announcers keep saying nil instead of zero, and ask how many more times our team needs to tie in order to win the World Cup. Then everybody goes back to remembering they don’t actually like soccer.
And that’s why 2016 is the perfect time for somebody to roll out Team USA surf gear. Hurley did this in 2014 with the Phantom board shorts when the American squad advanced to the round of 16 in the FIFA World Cup. With the 2016 Olympics games in Rio this summer they’ve given the Team USA uniform a remake. It’s the perfect bandwagon staple. You probably don’t really care if Michael Phelps wins his 74th gold medal this summer or if the Americans medal in table tennis. But by golly if they do you’d better believe there will be plenty of patriotic chest bumping in the streets to accompany.
Now other than the fact that it would seem and look awkward to find people wearing Team USA gear in a non-Olympic/non World Cup year (think about it, how many of those 2014 shorts have you seen in the lineup since well, that summer?), the new line has some pretty flashy threads for both men and women. Hats, women’s boardshorts, tank tops, you name it. Also, it’s a science fact that you get more barrels when you trunk it for America. Or is it just that the bandwagon will stop rolling after closing ceremonies?
merrica
