The making of the 2010 Olympic medals

[freespirit]

How the 2010 Olympic medals are made. I thought this was very cool!

http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-medals/vancouver-2010-medals/

 

[danmand]

Fake video, they are really made in Guangzhou.

 

[Medman52]

Great to see Canada's First Nations involved and that some of Canada's physical features were used in the design of the medals.

Good for Canada!!

 

[Cycleguy007]

Fake video, they are really made in Guangzhou.

Not sure if you were being facetious or not, but I have actually been involved with producing products for Canada'a Olympic programs in the passed. HBC has an entire design team dedicated towards this effort for both the athlete's and for sale in their stores... and I can tell you from personal experience it is A MAJOR PAIN IN THE ASS!

On one hand you have the general public saying that everything should be domestically designed and produced, but they aren't willing to pay extra for it when compared to products of a similar quality nature.

So, they have to contact guys like me who happen to have manufacturing contacts in China, but China really can't be bothered with making a few 1,000 custom designed products, so favours need to be called in and specialty moulds etc are amortized using smaller quantities which drives the price up some more. (But not so much that it will be more cost effective to make them here mind you...)

Furthermore, the manufacturing base simply does not exist domestically for many things...

People may "want" to support Canada during such events... but it isn't so easy when you look beyond the surface.

 

[tboy]

I especially like the idea that each medal is part of a bigger piece of art. That way, no matter who wins, they are tied to each other via this event. Pretty damn cool concept.