French fashion house Lacoste, whose alligator logo-stamped short-sleeve piqué polo shirt has for decades defined preppyhood, yuppiehood – if not the ‘hood – is enraged at Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik for wearing its signature shirt whenever he is in public.

polo shirt London’s The Telegraph says Breivik, 32, who killed 77 people July 22 in Utøya and Oslo, demands that he wear no other shirt.

polo shirt He writes in his manifesto that “refined people like [Breivik] should wear brands like Lacoste.” An Oslo police rep tells Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet that Lacoste bigwigs demand the terrorist be banned from wearing any of its duds, arguing that it “could do considerable harm to their reputation.” Lacoste has refused to comment.polo shirt

Head Coach Pat Shurmur showed up at his first Monday-after press conference wearing a polo shirt the color of an orange creamsicle.

Whether he knew he had been getting smeared on blogs and talk radio was unclear. Probably, he knew.

“Now your hair doesn’t turn gray,” he joked. “It falls out.”

Shurmur mostly played it straight, taking charge of the tone, not groveling.

Browns fans have either lived through or heard of Red Right 88, The Drive and The Fumble. Shurmur did a preemptive strike in his opening remarks, anticipating that everyone wanted to know about The Quickie.

The Browns failed to line up in an organized formation or call a timeout before the Bengals ran a quick snap that led to a wide-open A.J. Green catching a game-bending touchdown pass with 4:28 left.

He said a timeout could have been called, and that he could have called it, but he said the players on the field should have done … something.

“With two wideouts out there, we’ve gotta go cover ‘em,” he said. “They’re all standing there holding hands.

“We’ve got to cover down. We’ve just got to do it.”

polo shirt  Shurmur basically said he’s a fine one to talk. He needs to fix a few things, too. For one thing, he drew a penalty for running into an official who was running by the Browns sideline.

One of the first things Shurmur mentioned Monday was Sunday’s glaring trouble with punting.

Forgetting Richmond McGee’s rough numbers — see Zastudil below — anyone who watched the new Browns punter could only wonder. How soon might he be the Browns’ ex-punter?

“We’re going to make some decisions,” Shurmur said. “I wouldn’t say he’s lost his job right now, but we’re evaluating it.”

polo shirt  NFL teams use Tuesdays as a tryout day.

Shurmur shared a few insights about some of his players coming off the opener:

n On Colt McCoy: “In parts of the game, Colt played very well. A few plays, there were some easy ones that we didn’t take.” He said there were “four or five” such plays that would have changed the game.

n On right tackle Tony Pashos, who missed the opener with a leg injury:

“There’s a chance he may not play (at Indianapolis).”

Recent acquisitions Oniel Cousins and Artis Hicks took turns at right tackle Sunday.

n On Jason Pinkston: “For a rookie, he did a heckuva good job at left guard.”

n On Evan Moore missing out on a long touchdown catch that would have given the Browns an 11-point lead: “If you ask him, he’ll tell you he should have made that play.”

n On linebacker D’Qwell Jackson, who made 12 tackles and two sacks: “My goodness.” He meant it as a compliment.

n “Alex Mack played a terrific game at center.”

Shurmur said first-round pick Phil Taylor did “a nice job” in his debut at defensive tackle.

polo shirts Very little happens in Union Square that escapes the notice of a man known as Normal Bob Smith, a longtime park fixture who chronicles its characters on the “Amazing Strangers” portion of his Web site.

One of his main genres of park characters is the peeper. Normal Bob, whose given name is Bob Hain, says peepers are a constant presence in the south section of the park, where they prey on women wearing skirts who sit on the sets of steps along 14th Street.

For years, Mr. Hain, 42, a graphic artist who lives in Bushwick, has been peeping at the peepers: shooting pictures and video footage of the surreptitious gawkers to post on his site, along with detailed analyses of the strategies they use to steal glances while seeming to blend in with pedestrians.

Several months ago, Mr. Hain’s collection of peeper chronicles caught the attention of producers from “Inside Edition,” and now the program is broadcasting an investigation of the peepers on Monday at noon on WNYW, Channel 5, in New York City.

In August, “Inside Edition” sent a team of people with hidden cameras to stake out the regular peeping sections. They shot footage of a handful of men who looked — often for hours at a time — under the skirts of women on the steps, said Larry Posner, a producer of the segment.

“It was shocking to learn how prevalent it was in the park,” Mr. Posner said. “We had heard about it, but to see it day in and day out, our staffers were equally disgusted.”

One member of the team shot footage from the second-story eating area of the Whole Foods that overlooks the park on 14th Street. Another videotaped the peepers head-on, from a vantage point past the women, with a third staff member roaming behind the peepers, to see if they were taking pictures of the women — many were, Mr. Posner said. Hidden cameras were used to film the segment.

The program also put two young female researchers on the steps dressed in short skirts — with shorts underneath — and using cameras tucked in their purses to shoot the peepers.

“I think people will watch and say, ‘I can’t believe this is going on,’ ” Mr. Posner said. “Unless the girls are really looking for it, they’d never know.”

Mr. Posner said the team did not contact the police about the peepers they investigated, but he added, “We hope by showing this, we’ll bring awareness to this issue and action will be taken.”

Mr. Posner said he or the on-air correspondent for the segment, Lisa Guerrero, would typically confront a peeper once it was established that the person was photographing women. The segment shows them confronting three men on-camera, each of whom denied he was peeping, he said.

Mr. Posner said his research of court papers showed two arrests in recent months for illegal surveillance in the Union Square area.

Peeper arrests are rare in New York City public spaces because simply trying to look under the skirts of women is not a crime. Voyeurism is illegal when the subject is unaware and the image is recorded on camera.

In 2007, Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr. introduced a bill in the City Council that would prohibit peeping in public places such as parks and subways, but civil rights groups have objected to such laws.

“Inside Edition” came away with plenty of footage of Mr. Hain’s regular peepers, including Preppy Peeper (who dresses in preppy clothes) and Portrait Peeper (he leers while pretending to paint portraits).

Mr. Hain helped producers identify the peeping styles, how to distinguish “tandem-style peeping,” for instance, from “front row peeping.” He has been holding forth on these and other details of the peepers on the “Methods of a Peeper” videos — “the behavior and science behind the Union Square Peeper” — on his site, laying out various practices and providing detailed diagrams of peeper strategies and preferred sight lines.

Last Thursday, Mr. Hain was in his usual spot in the park, on the steps near 14th Street and Park Avenue. He pointed out the current group of peepers in front of him: a man in work boots and a polo shirt; another man who had a mullet haircut and was wearing a dark T-shirt; and a short man wearing a white T shirt.

“These guys are regulars,” Mr. Hain said. “The guy in the polo shirt is pretending to be on the phone — he’ll stand like that for hours. The short guy is Mini-Peeper. For some reason, because of his size, he doesn’t get noticed as easily and gets real close.”

DODGEVILLE, Wis., July 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — What would you do with a lifetime supply of polo shirts  That is the question that Jeff Dubin from San Marcos, Calif., recently asked himself after learning that he was the Grand Prize Winner of Lands’ End Business Outfitters second annual Great Polo Trade In contest.  In addition to receiving a lifetime supply of Lands’ End’s redesigned Mesh Polo shirts, Dubin will receive 50 logo’d polos for his organization.  

To celebrate the hard-working polo shirt, Lands’ End Business Outfitters challenged avid polo wearers to share photos of their old, faded and overworked polo shirts.  Selected from more than 600 entries, Dubin’s winning submission featured a bleach-stained logo’d polo for his business, Piano Lessons by Jeff.  

“I’ve been teaching for nine years now but playing piano all my life.  My students range from age four to 73.  I teach a few in my home but most lessons are held in their homes.  That’s why the logo’d shirts work so well,” said Dubin.  “I think I’m going to have my students design a new logo for me.  A few have already expressed an interest.  I’m going to give each of them a new polo with a new design.  They need to be a part of the celebration.  I wouldn’t be here without them.”

“There simply couldn’t be a better time for America to trade in their overworked polos,” said John Maher, senior vice president, Lands’ End Business Outfitters.  “We’ve been providing high quality polo shirts for nearly 30 years, and we are thrilled to offer our customers a redesigned Mesh Polo, ensuring that today’s workforce looks professional.  With stain-release fabric, no-curl collars and fabrics designed to resist pilling, fading and wrinkles, Lands’ End Mesh Polo is guaranteed to meet work and wardrobe needs from the backyard to the boardroom.”  

Polos for the People

In addition to the lucky Grand Prize winner, determined by an online community vote featuring 10 semi-finalist entries, Land’s End Business Outfitters awarded prizes to the following:

• Second place winner: Sarah Lawrence, Morrisville, N.C., received 25 logo’d polos and a $250 Lands’ End gift card for her “old, gross blue polo” entry.
• Third place: Nancy Snaadt of Fort Madison, Iowa, received 10 logo’d polos and a $100 gift card for entering her husband’s hard-on-the-eyes cheesy polo.
• Fourth place: Pam Smiadak of East Lansing, Mich., received 10 logo’d polos and a $100 gift card for entering her husband’s patterned polo worn on every summer holiday.  
• Fifth place tie: Melissa Jones of Conroe, Texas, and Heather T sihlis of Buffalo Grove, Ill., each received 10 logo’d polos and a $100 gift card for her home-embroidered and oversized polo entries, respectively.  

The first 250 people who uploaded photos of their worn polos and shared their old shirt’s story at facebook.com/LandsEndBusiness also received a new Lands’ End Mesh Polo.

About Lands’ End

Lands’ End® is a classic American lifestyle brand with a passion for quality, legendary service, real value and a simple two-word promise to stand behind everything it sells: Guaranteed. Period.® Lands’ End delivers timeless style for Men, Women, Kids and the Home at landsend.com, 1-800-800-5800, the Lands’ End Shops at Sears and around the world.  Lands’ End is a proud member of Sears Holdings Corporation

The humble polo shirt has long been a standard for those in events, hospitality and security. What is quite surprising is the volume of polo shirts some companies get through every year as they become misshapen, torn or off coloured, not to mention the changing of logo’s and titles.

If companies choose the right workwear first time around, they can avoid racking up costs later in the year and forking out for replacement garments on a regular basis.

Deciding whether to go short sleeved or longsleeved would be the obvious first choice. What may surprise many is that there’s little difference in price, so what needs to be considered the most is the environment.

Are you mainly in warm weather or indoors? Then a short sleeved would be the way to go. Short sleeved polo shirts are also offer the flexibility of looking good underneath other items of workwear such as a jumper or tank top.

Long sleeved however also has their advantage. They offer the coolness of a short sleeved polo shirt, and indeed look that bit classier than a short sleeved shirt, however they are much more difficult to layer up, with them only being suited really to a gillet or body warmer.

Material and weight also factor into the decision. Polo shirts tend to be cotton, polyester or a mix of the two. The mix of fabrics tends to be the most popular, and with good reason – It provides the perfect balance of properties from both. The hardwearing and comfortableness of cotton combined with the quick drying ability of polyester.

Easily 95% of the events industry will be taking up offers of embroidery on their polo shirts too, and won’t need the benefits explaining, but will need reminding that the quality of the embroidery will rest heavily (no pun intended) on the weight of the shirt. A thin shirt may keep staff cool, but won’t embroider to a high standard.

Brookes UK offer some of the best prices around for workwear of this nature, including embroidered polo shirts.

Competition

We’d also like to thank those who have read this with a fantastic competition. We’re offering readers of Event Industry News the chance to win TEN of our top quality Uneek Classic Polo Shirts, with your company logo embroidered on.

These classic polo shirts come in a choice of four colours, and provide the excellent cotton/polyester mix we described earlier, as well as coming in at a good weight of 220gsm.

Polo shirts Mexican drug traffickers in Ralph Lauren polo shirts have become unofficial promoters of the fashion among disaffected youth, much to the distress of the authorities.

The trend came to light in August 2010 with the capture of the capo Edgar Valdez Villarreal, aka La Barbie, who was brought before the press wearing an immovable smirk and one of the shirts in green.

Jose Jorge Balderas Garza, known as El JJ and accused of shooting Paraguayan football star Salvador Cabañas in a nightclub, was detained four months later wearing the same model in blue.

La Barbie and El JJ were associated with the same schism of the Beltran Leyva cartel but at least six alleged members of other organisations have been arrested in the same garment this year. They include three Zetas, one from the Southern Pacific cartel and another from the Independent cartel of Acapulco.

Originals sell for about $150 (£90), but knock-off versions are doing a roaring trade on the streets at a tenth of that price. “The kids want to look like the bad guys,” said Maria del Carmen Martinez, one Mexico City vendor.

Oscar Galicia, a research psychologist from the Iberoamericana University in the capital, puts it more formally. “There is an aspirational crisis in Mexico today in which young people have lost faith in legal means for social advancement and see the ‘narcos’ as figures of respect.” Galicia said the traffickers copied the style from the Mexican elite who began wearing the shirts several years ago. Urban-based criminals now see themselves as part of that elite and have eschewed the old image dominated by loud open polo neck shirts, crocodile skin boots, and large gold chains.

Last weekend, the governor of the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa said he was “enormously worried” about the number of young people wearing the shirts. “There are people who want to be like these false idols,” he said, adding that he wished they would wear clothes with the images of traditional heroes such as Emiliano Zapata.

The new cross-cartel fashion also coincides with a trend towards semi-formal hitmen uniforms ranging from identical combat gear to matching

More proof that that there is a massive conspiracy in fashion to take over the entire world. What? You haven’t heard of it? Maybe that’s because I just made it up. But given the latest move by Ralph Lauren, one would forgive me if I feel this particular designer is attempting a major power grab, simply because he once had the idea to design clothing for rich, preppy people by putting a man on a horse, holding a stick, in the top left corner of a collared shirt.

It seems the all-American designer sued to stop the U.S. Polo Association from using the word “polo” and any images of a person playing polo. I know, talk about kicking the gift horse in the mouth. But guess what? He WON.

Personally, I’ve never been a fan of the Polo shirts. Don’t even get me started on those giant Polo logos that popped up a few years ago on his shirts. Fugly, right? So perhaps I’m just not getting the importance of maintaining the image for his brand. But suing so a sports organization — where you found the initial inspiration for your brand — can no longer use their own image and language seems completely insane and the height of narcissism. It’s like if I decided to sue all calendar makers for using my name.

Do you think Lacoste will sue the state of Florida? Or Nike will ask the makers of forms to stop asking people to check the box? Maybe Starbucks will sue Disney and ask them to stop talking about The Little Mermaid. Oh, wait, it’s usually Disney that goes around suing people …

Regardless, this fashion dude has gone way too far. And I, for one, will not be buying his shirts anymore. Oh, crap, I forgot, I already hate them.

Does Ralph Lauren have a point?