Why Team Russia's Olympics Uniforms Are Totally Dope

They've got one thing going for them.

Team Russia's road to Rio has been rough, to say the least.

Of the original 387 team members who were part of the country's Olympics squad, more than 100 athletes were banned from the games after they were found guilty of doping. Even those who did make it to the Brazilian city are getting booed—or worse. Who can forget U.S. swimmer Lilly King waving her finger after Russia's Yulia Efimova won the first heat of the 100-meter breaststroke semifinal?

Despite the rumblings over Team Russia's doping record, the country's got one thing going for them in Rio: their, uh, dope uniforms, which are once again designed by Russian lifestyle label Bosco. (Unlike the USA uniforms, at least their designs haven't been slammed by online critics.)

A photo posted by Elena Vesnina (@vesnushka86) on Aug 8, 2016 at 5:45pm PDT

One reason the retro tracksuits actually look kind of cool is that they are reminiscent of the athletic wear we've been seeing on the runways as of late. Most noticeably, they are similar to the work of one of Russia's hottest homegrown designers at the moment, Gosha Rubchinskiy, whose latest fall collection features tracksuits, oversized turtlenecks, crewneck sweaters and sweatpants with Cyrillic script (used for the Russian alphabet). His spring 2016 collection was full of athletic gear that looked like it could have come straight from the field and court, too.

Rubchinskiy, whose post-Soviet skater look has made fans of rappers A$AP Rocky and Travis Scott, most recently showed his eponymous label in Florence, Italy during the annual Pitti Uomo tradeshow in June.



ON TRACK(SUITS): Models in Gosha Rubchinskiy's spring 2016 collection. (Photos: gosharubchinskiy.com)

Perhaps the Russian creative will consider taking a page from the playbooks of Stella McCartney, DSquared and Giorgio Armani, and design the actual Russian uniforms for the next Olympic games? That could be the most dope move, yet.