IAN O'RIORDANfinds out that times have changed from rows over kit and that the Ireland Olympic squad will have every angle covered in London

FOR A country that was once torn between what our athletes could and couldn’t wear on the Olympic stage London looks like being perfectly uniform.

Many of the 65-strong Irish team will be checking into the London Olympic Village this weekend, complete with a large bagful of team gear – and that’s just for starters. By the time they collect another bagful of competition gear they’ll have over 50 items of team clothing in total, enough to see them through the Games without worrying about a trip to the Village dry cleaners.

For the first time, Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) gear sponsors Asics have worked directly with members of the Irish team, including chef de mission Sonia O’Sullivan and Athletes’ Commission representative Jamie Costin, to ensure all items of team clothing are a perfect fit.

This is not without a little irony, as O’Sullivan was herself caught in the middle of the infamous gear row at the 1996 Olympics, in Atlanta, when forced to change from her own brand of choice, Reebok, into what was then the gear of Irish sponsors, which also happened to be Asics.

The process of designing the Irish team gear for London began over a year ago, when Asics began working with the OCI, the national federation performance directors, and the Athletes’ Commission to ensure the quality, style and design of performance and team clothing was up to scratch.

Samples were produced and tested by representatives of the individual sports, including the latest in inner muscle “compression” clothing, and there was also a major exercise in sizing “matrix” to ensure every item of clothing would fit the athlete it was intended to fit. The colour and design range was fully updated, so no one will be wearing any hand-me-downs from Beijing.

Casual sporting attire has also been designed for their roles, and again individually tailored for the 14 sports represented in London.

For Irish athletics team manager Patsy McGonagle the main priority this week has been to ensure all the athletes have at least one bag of team gear before actually departing for London.

“Most of the athletes would already have collected a bag of casual gear at this stage,” he says.

“That would consist of five tracksuits, including the casual parade gear, and also polo shirts, T-shirts, long-sleeve shorts, socks, headbands, and so on. That’s a lot of gear in itself, and more than enough to see them through the Olympics without having to worry about a wash.

“Then as each athlete checks into their pre-Games holding camp they collect their competition gear, which is obviously specifically designed and tailored for their event. For track and field that’s a competition vest and shorts, and also warm-up tights, jacket and rain gear.

“They also get a hat, sunglasses, water bottle, everything like that. I haven’t actually sat down and counted what they get, but it must be around 50 items in total, but all top quality materials, and really, very, very good gear.”

All members of the Irish team are obliged to wear the official gear before, during and after competition – with the exception of their footwear, such as competition spikes, where brand exceptions are allowed, not just because most athletes have individual contracts with shoe companies, but may even be wearing tailor-made shoes, and wouldn’t fancy being forced to wear a shoe that didn’t fit well.

Asics designs all its running and athletic gear at its head office in Kobe, Japan, but the products are manufactured primarily in Southern China, Vietnam and Indonesia – so none of the Irish gear is actually manufactured at home. Despite being one of the leading sporting brands, Asics will only be sponsoring three national teams in London: Ireland, Romania and the Netherlands.

But it wouldn’t be a proper Olympics without some sort of gear row, which this time has broken out in the US after it emerged their uniforms, designed by Ralph Lauren, were manufactured in China.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada said he wanted them burned and replaced with American-made ones, although the best the company could promise was that it would begin making the uniforms in the US beginning with the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Should Asics be promising the same about some of the Irish team gear come Rio 2016?