Norway’s Flashing Curling Pants Are Back!

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Norway’s curling team and their multi-colored Loudmouth Golf pants are making their appearance at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.

Norway’s Olympic curling team became famous for their flashy pants at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Games. No doubt, style has become an integral part of the Olympics, with national refinery on full display.

Norway’s Flashing Curling Pants Are Back!
Norway’s Olympic curling team became famous for their flashy pants at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Games.

The outfits developed a cult following those Olympics and a Facebook page swelled to more than 575,000 followers, while the maker of the pants, Loudmouth Golf, saw an immediate 40 percent increase in sales.

It all began shortly before the 2010 Vancouver games when Norway’s national Olympic committee outfitted Thomas Ulsrud’s squad with rather dull, all-black uniforms. An enterprising teammate, 31-year-old Christoffer Svae from Oslo, thought the team should be more patriotic and purchased several checkered pair of pants with the Norwegian colors of red, blue and white.

Norway’s Flashing Curling Pants Are Back!
The outfits developed a cult following those Olympics and a Facebook page swelled to more than 575,000 followers

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However, it was not the Norwegian curling team who first made the Loudmouth Golf’s wildly patterned trousers famous in connection with the Olympics. The PGA golfer John Daly became the talk of Vancouver for his unconventional Olympic uniform choice. Later the Loudmouth brand outfitted the U. S. volleyball duo Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers during the Summer Games in London.

Norway’s Flashing Curling Pants Are Back!
Norway skip Thomas Ulsrud, center, keeps his eye on his shot as Christoffer Svae, right, and Havard Vad Petersson sweep during an morning draw against Scotland at the mens world curling championships in Victoria, British Columbia, Wednesday, April 3, 2013. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward) ORG XMIT: JOHV117

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For the 2018 Olympics, Loudmouth has come up with a new design, dubbed “Icicles”, looking more like a child has thrown paint on them. No wonder, the Norwegian curling team now go by the name “The Pants”. Times are changing. Back in 2010, Thomas Ulsrud claimed, “No way I’m playing in those pants. I look like a clown.” His teammate Torger Nergaard said, “It’s going to be great to win in these pants, and it’s going to be terrible if we lose.”

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Norway’s Flashing Curling Pants Are Back!
The Norwegian curling team made the Loudmouth Golf’s wildly patterned trousers famous in connection with the Olympics

As soon as the Norwegians took the ice for their first game, the pants were an immediate sensation. The Loudmouth sponsorship has helped fund the Norwegian curling team’s Olympic aspirations, and given the curlers quite some notoriety.

Feature image (on top): The Norway men’s curling team for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, from left: Christoffer Save, Haavard Peterson, Thomas Ulsrud, Torger Nergaard. Photo: Loudmouth Golf.

Norway’s Flashing Curling Pants Are Back! Written by Tor Kjolberg

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Journalist, PR and marketing consultant Tor Kjolberg has several degrees in marketing management. He started out as a marketing manager in Scandinavian companies and his last engagement before going solo was as director in one of Norway’s largest corporations. Tor realized early on that writing engaging stories was more efficient and far cheaper than paying for ads. He wrote hundreds of articles on products and services offered by the companies he worked for. Thus, he was attuned to the fact that storytelling was his passion.