Burlington, VT – Burton this week took the wraps off the Olympic uniforms the company has created for U.S. Snowboarding athletes.

Snowboarding first gained its street cred by embracing counter-culture principles, and the new uniforms certainly speak to that heritage while somehow also calling upon vintage Americana including handcrafted patchwork quilts and the American flag. After a long hunt, Burton designers found what they called the perfect vintage quilt at an antique fair. Then, they brought it home to Vermont where it was deconstructed and re-constructed by a veteran Vermont quilt maker in order to get it ready to replicate onto the outerwear fabrics.

Following this, Burton developed a method to print exact replicas of both the quilt and a vintage American flag onto the fabric of its team Competition Jacket. The end result is that the quilt pattern on the jackets looks like it was hand-stitched with patchwork squares. And an exact duplicate of the vintage American flag is proudly featured on the jacket’s sleeve.

The Burton Olympic Competition Pants were also designed with considerable care and attention to detail. Corduroy was chosen for the pant fabric since it has been a staple of American clothing for generations, and the company sourced a highly technical corduroy fabric (also featured on the shoulders of the Competition Jacket), which is weatherproofed with Burton’s new DRYRIDE Nanoshell laminate that features a waterproof/breathable membrane to keep the riders warm and dry. To round out the outerwear, Burton also designed all items that will be worn under the jacket and pants, including first-layer bottoms and tops, three different beanies, gloves/mitts and a cozy wool/silk blend competition pull-over fleece.

“We’re really proud that the 2014 uniform builds on Burton’s legacy of creating fun, unconventional designs that stray from the formal, traditional look of most uniforms,” said Greg Dacyshyn, Chief Creative Officer at Burton Snowboards. “The vintage quilt and flag print of the jacket combined with the corduroy pants give the uniform a ‘heirloom hippy’ vibe that lines up with snowboarding’s laid-back culture while paying respect to America’s longstanding creative heritage. It will stand out in Sochi for sure.”