Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Team Canada (Women) to wear Nike / Livestrong jerseys?

octothorp · 04-02-2013, 12:18 PM

I've got mixed feelings on it. I've made my thoughts about the LiveStrong well known in the other thread and it's still an organization that I intensely dislike for how they often functioned as an Armstrong PR campaign for many years, all the while calling these programs cancer awareness. However, they have a combination of infrastructure and awareness that they could shift into being a very effective charity, and I wish them all the best in trying to refocus their organization. One of the key parts of this transformation means channeling more money to programs that directly help survivors and victims, and rely on non-paying partnerships for their awareness goals (such as this partnership with Hockey Canada appears to be, if we believe HC's version of the story, re: making this decision on their own, not based on input/encouragement from Nike).

However, I'm skeptical that LiveStrong will ever be possible to escape the current stigma. When athletes wear pink, everyone knows that it's about breast cancer awareness, and people don't really ask what the relationship is between the sports organization and the charity, why the decision was made, was money involved, etc. And breast cancer awareness has so much good will that they don't need to spend much money on awareness, because other organizations are eager to partner with them. The Breast Cancer Foundation sells their gear and actually funnels a portion of that money back into research.
But people see yellow and black and think LiveStrong Foundation, and Lance Armstrong (possibly in reverse order). Cancer will always be the third thing that comes to mind after those two things. There will always be these questions and criticisms. So how does LiveStrong continue with the awareness part of their mandate when their entire message is compromised? Not an easy question.

I can't escape the fact that I feel revulsion at seeing Lance Armstrong's colours combined with our Canadian uniforms. I'm totally okay with women on the team been spokespeople for LiveStrong; these are exactly the sorts of athletes LiveStrong needs to partner with to start to create a new identity for themselves. Like I said, I've got mixed feelings. I want the organization to move past the Armstrong era, but I'm not ready to forget that history.

04-02-2013, 12:18 PM	#12
octothorp Franchise Player Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: not lurking Exp:	I've got mixed feelings on it. I've made my thoughts about the LiveStrong well known in the other thread and it's still an organization that I intensely dislike for how they often functioned as an Armstrong PR campaign for many years, all the while calling these programs cancer awareness. However, they have a combination of infrastructure and awareness that they could shift into being a very effective charity, and I wish them all the best in trying to refocus their organization. One of the key parts of this transformation means channeling more money to programs that directly help survivors and victims, and rely on non-paying partnerships for their awareness goals (such as this partnership with Hockey Canada appears to be, if we believe HC's version of the story, re: making this decision on their own, not based on input/encouragement from Nike). However, I'm skeptical that LiveStrong will ever be possible to escape the current stigma. When athletes wear pink, everyone knows that it's about breast cancer awareness, and people don't really ask what the relationship is between the sports organization and the charity, why the decision was made, was money involved, etc. And breast cancer awareness has so much good will that they don't need to spend much money on awareness, because other organizations are eager to partner with them. The Breast Cancer Foundation sells their gear and actually funnels a portion of that money back into research. But people see yellow and black and think LiveStrong Foundation, and Lance Armstrong (possibly in reverse order). Cancer will always be the third thing that comes to mind after those two things. There will always be these questions and criticisms. So how does LiveStrong continue with the awareness part of their mandate when their entire message is compromised? Not an easy question. I can't escape the fact that I feel revulsion at seeing Lance Armstrong's colours combined with our Canadian uniforms. I'm totally okay with women on the team been spokespeople for LiveStrong; these are exactly the sorts of athletes LiveStrong needs to partner with to start to create a new identity for themselves. Like I said, I've got mixed feelings. I want the organization to move past the Armstrong era, but I'm not ready to forget that history.