Olympics | Straight Talk

Many TransLink bus drivers are wearing Olympic and Paralympic vests.

Stephen Hui

You may have noticed your local bus driver sporting a new turquoise vest bearing the logos of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

TransLink, an Olympic transportation partner, has given an official Olympic vest, a tuque or baseball cap, and a pin to every one of its employees, as well as those of its subsidiaries.

Ken Hardie, a spokesperson for TransLink, told the Straight today (February 8) that the regional transportation authority purchased the Olympic gear with funds it pulled in from its contract with the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee.

Vanoc is paying $17 million to TransLink for transit services related to the Games.

This contract covers all of the advertising space on the system, the transit fares built in to Olympic tickets, and the cost of transporting Olympic workers and volunteers.

“The bottom line is though that it was all included in that contract,” Hardie said by phone. “So, TransLink itself is not incurring an additional cost as a result of supplying this.”

The labels on the clothing items indicate they are from the Hudson’s Bay Company, but they aren’t being sold by the retailer to the public. The pins depict the SkyTrain, the SeaBus, the West Coast Express, and a bus.

All of the items bear the phrase “Let’s move the world” and were made in China.

Hardie didn’t have the number or cost of the items on hand, but he said he would find out and get back to the Straight.

“It was always envisioned that we would include in our Olympic program basically some gear for the staff, because of course almost all of them would be frontline and visible during the Games and they needed of course to be identified as such,” Hardie said. “So, that was really the drill.”

As of today, two of the vests and one of the tuques were for sale on the auction site eBay. There were no bids.

You can follow Stephen Hui on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenhui.