Design Canada Results
Posted by rscadmin on January 29, 2008
The Design Canada results are in!
Roller Sports Canada & Il Peloton would like to thank all of the entrants and all of the voters in making the Design Canada! competition an unqualified success. 22 entries were received along with hundreds of votes. Many of you took the time to express your enthusiasm for the contest and shared your comments:
- I’d be proud to wear just about any one of them – they are excellent.
- Hard to choose.
- A wonderful initiative.
- J’aimerais bien être encore d’âge de porter un Skinsuit et avoir la fierté de représenter mes origines.
- All I can say is. . .wow!
- There are so many beautiful choices.
- Thanks for running the contest. Fantastic.
- I wish I could vote for all of them.
After tallying the votes, we are pleased to announce that the winners are. . .
(to enlarge click on the skinsuit)
Design #12 will become the suit for the Canadian World/Pan Am Team and will undergo modifications to meet the teams’ requirements. The final version will be posted at a later date.
Design #20 will become what is called the Official Canada suit. It has already been given some finishing touches, including the application of elements from Design #4, a very popular design in the competition. You can see the final version of the Official Canada suit below:
This suit will be available for sale at Il Peloton, including on the website, starting in March 2008. Matching jerseys and shorts will also be available a little later on in the season. Anyone who wishes to represent Canada while racing or skating anywhere in the world now has the ability to do so. Proceeds from the sale of this clothing will be donated by Il Peloton to support the athletes on the 2008 Canadian World Team.
Once again, a huge thank you to all of the people who contributed, promoted, visited, and voted. It has been a fantastic experience and everyone involved is very proud to have been part of Design Canada!
Your Design Canada! Team
Il Peloton Ltd. & Rollersports Canada
Anonymous said
Great! What kind of bird is on the gray skinsuit, is it indian? And why 2 flowers on the neck? Finaly, why blue letters, there’s no blue on the candian flag?
rscadmin said
Hi there- I am not sure what kind of bird is on the suit- I hope details about ‘why’ certain things were featured and about the concept of the suit are published.
The blue flowers are the fleur de lis- one of the symbols of Quebec.
Re the lettering; I can’t answer that. Hopefully we’ll find out who is behind the design and they can explain why they selected the given colours.
There will be some modifications made to the suit, so stay tuned for those changes.
Hogtown Racer said
In my humble opinion I don’t think racing suits need to look like a country’s flag. Personally I find the symbolism used quite interesting. A native inspired drawing of a bird and the fleur de lis. This gives you the segment of Canada that wants their land back and a part of Canada that wants nothing to do with Canada (at times). Brilliant. If there was only some way to incorporate other political tensions on a national racing suit we’d have the whole country covered. Western alienation – maybe a disgruntled looking roughneck from an oil rig. Maritime angst – Maybe a fisherman shaking an angry fist at the federal government. Now that would be one “colourful” suit. I guess I’ll start designing for next year. At least this one is half way there! all the best. “train right, turn left”
Boggled said
I agree with Hogtown. The suit doesn’t need to look like a country’s flag. I think both the suits are very attractive to the eyes and have a great esthetic appeal however, the symbolism is most definitely defiant. A native stylized graphic is very Canadian and I believe this to be the reason behind that aspect. So I do also hope that when the suits are “fine tuned”, the fact none of the other provinces have representation, don’t raise any eyebrows… this is after all a “Canadian” WT issue.
Anonymous said
I don’t see the suit as defiant. I see it as an attempt to pay attention to some important parts of what it means to be a Canadian that are overlooked by another red, white and maple leaf.
Although I am neither a Quebecker nor a native person, I am really proud that these groups are part of the diversity of my country.
And besides, the fleur de lis is a beautiful symbol and the Haida Gwaii make brilliant art.
Different anonymous said
I agree that the fleur de lis “is a beautiful symbol” but what I think is inappropriate is that it is a Quebec symbol. If a national team suit is going to have provincial symbols it better have a symbol from EVERY province and territory. The fleur de lis is not a national symbol of Canada and in isolation has no place on a Canadian suit of any kind! An easy fix would be to replace it with maple leafs.
rscadmin said
Different anonymous and everyone else- thank you for your comments and input. I understand that the suit may have some modifications, including the fleur de lis being changed to a red maple leaf.
Anonymous said
Neither is the Haiida western native bird appropirate…it would be IF, as in long track, they’d be organising the biggest event in the sport(olympics), worlds/pan-ams for inline, to have a local symbol of where it is to happen. As they did on the arm of the long track national skin suit with the ”Innu pile of rocks”.
Just switch it for general symbols, the leaf, the snow flake, the map of Canada, a moose whatever…
Anonymous said
” Different anonymous and everyone else- thank you for your comments and input. I understand that the suit may have some modifications, including the fleur de lis being changed to a red maple leaf.”
Red on black just does not look good
Anonymous said
I don’t understand why there is a fleur Delise on the colar – let alone 2! and no other province is represented.
As a born and raised Canadian I will admit that I have never seen or hear of the Haida Raven before – untill now and that someone told me that is what it is. Did anyone research what this bird represents? — From what I can tell it actually is a symbol of “trickery” — Is this really what we want to represent our World Class Athletes???
I understand why people would want to represent our cultural diversity… however if you are only going to represent the french and the natives why not represent the REST of the Canadian Minorities!!!
I also understand why some of the althletes would want a different suit and different colors – however Canada does have a red and white flag and that what the world knows us as – the maple leaf is an international symbol for Canada; Right now this suit has neither of these!
I do not feel that this suit Says CANADIAN pride…. Instead it screams Canadian Minority Pride!!!
rscadmin said
Thank you for taking your time to voice your thoughts and opinions;
It is clear that the suit means a lot to the Canadian roller speed skating community.
Whatever you may think of the symbolism and meanings of the images on the suit, it’s safe to say that to Roller Sports Canada and to the skaters that have represented Canada at the world championships and will do so again, the suit represents a re-birth of sorts.
It is a move towards the future with a positive outlook on improving Canadian results. The new suit is a very small component of elevating the level of Canadian skating. There is much more work to be done, and volunteers are urgently needed.
It is true that Canadians may look at the suit and be struck by, really like, or dislike the symbolism. In the end, a choice was made by a designer to include certain images and the community voted on the suit.
The international skating community and a segment of the Canadian community may miss some or all of the symbolism altogether, and simply appreciate the suit for its aesthetic qualities.
Regardless of what we each think, in the end, a group of Canadian skaters and their supporters will have trained very hard and will pay their own way to the world championships and proudly wear the suit.
Canadianref01 said
WOW this is a truly Canadian suit as it has brough much of what pulls our country apart to this forum. I voted for this suit because it looked cooler than the rest. It will be an eye catcher at international events. I feel our athletes will be proud to wear the suit (although I think we loose the blue and repalce it with red). One other closing thought, ” did anyone look into copyright of the Haida Gwaii design? Whoever designed the suit did a great job. Cheers Alex
Il Peloton Ltd said
I agree Canadianref01 and RSCadmin – wow has the suit has really generated a lot of discussion in the community.
The designer is both dismayed that some people feel that the suit is defiant/exclusionary, but is also happy that it is generating a discussion about what it means to be Canadian.
In the end, a majority of people felt that this suit reflected Canada best. It was not chosen by the world team, and it was also the most popular suit with the public – a total pool of more than 200 voters. It’s unfortunate, but probably unavoidable, that not everyone is happy with the results.
Canadianref01 – good point about the copyright. Someone else brought it to our attention, we were able to confirm that there are no copyright issues.
May the Raven bring the Team luck!
Quebec Ice Force said
Minorities…??? That’s the most stupid thing I,ve ever heard. Québec represents almost 25% of Canada’s pupulation…that’s more than a minority, there are not 4 provinces, you know? Thus said, Québec IS speed skating, I don’t care how many they are, the speedskating champions come from Québecm, the MAJORITY of Olympic medals too. It has slightly changed since Calgary has an facility advantage, buy it will certainly change once Québec has its own indoor long track oval, period.
Please be respectfull toward ”minorities”, it’s not like Québec’s governement or roller federation offered money so a lys flower was placed on the canadian suit.
Like it was said, I think the snow flake was the best idea, It would show that canada is a winter country, and remember all that we can’t inline skate year round. Scow is all over canada, now that’s common for everyone.
http://www.stat.gouv.qc.ca/jeunesse/population/pop_1851_05.htm
idea's said
Haida Gwaii design: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Charlotte_Islands
why not have the canadian map on the soulders or something… it would change from the leaf, and mean the same…
Anonymous said
How hard could it be to resume the few medals canada has ever won in inline skating…there are not many. As for the records, there must be some data somewhere… then you’d only have to update it to whoever says have other data that proves a better record.
Anonymous said
sorry wrong topic…
Boggled said
It doesn’t matter which province you are from. It doesn’t matter whether speed skating champs mostly come from Quebec and it doesn’t matter whether you’re a minority or majority. The bottom line is that this is a suit which is supposed to represent CANADA as a whole. The suit is esthetically pleasing and would look great in a pack whether on the track or in a pace-line on the road.
What makes speed skating a great sport is that it’s relatively inexpensive to join and is accessible to EVERYONE, regardless of your race, colour, age, sex or even the province you were born or live in. YOU are responsible for your own success (or failure). As the great Gaetan Boucher once said and to paraphrase… YOU only get out of this sport what YOU are willing to put in.
By having symbolism which does not represent the whole country – we are sending the message that politics plays a bigger role in how we present ourselves to the world, than true grit, skill or hard work of the athletes. This is a suit for the athletes of CANADA. The best we have to offer and it should reflect that very fact.
If I were an Ontario athlete, I wouldn’t wear a suit that only represented one or two provinces (of which none were mine.) A uniform is not just a static “thing” we wear. It’s a communications medium that can say many things about our athletes and our country. Shouldn’t the message be one of mutual respect and sportsmanship?