I can't believe it's almost time for me to pack my bags and head to Italy to cover the Olympics.

I've written about the Olympics before on my blog but I thought today's story gave me a perfect opportunity to talk about the whole marketing/licensing aspect behind the games. Who wears what and when is BIG business in the Olympics. For example, a couple of companies will have the right to market retail apparel with the Olympic rings on it, while another company will have the right to outfit a team in its competition uniforms while yet another will have the right to outfit the athletes as they take to the podium to collect thier medals. In some cases, it's country by country and in other cases it's not.. but it all adds up the athletes changing thier clothes more frequently than Paris Hilton at a fashion shoot.

As tonite's story mentioned, NIKE is now throwing its hat into the ring from a retail perspective and it got the rights to outfit all the American athletes as they take the podium for the medal ceremony. This is in addition to some of the competitive apparel it already puts on athletes (like those speed skating suits and the hockey uniforms).

Of course, this being my 3rd Olympics.. what I want to know is what the hot item will be at the games. If you'll remember in Salt Lake, it was that Roots beret the athletes wore.

I remember asking people in SLC how long they waited in line to get to the front. Answer = 3 hours. For a beret. And it was cold. Very cold. Can you imagine if you're the apparel designer who came up with that design? I bet there was an end of the year bonus in there somewhere.

Speaking of marketing and licensing, I found this interesting link on-line. It's clearly designed for people in the business of marketing sports apparel, and it's dated, but it will give you some insight into the big business that is Olympic marketing: http://www.sportsspin.com/categories/olympic/olympic_3.html.

Also, if you want to see the next big thing NIKE is working on: http://www.joinbode.com. NIKE planned internet-only "web films" as well as a television campaign.. and more. This site will continue to change as the weeks go on, too.

Good times. Hey Ryan, thanks for the nice email about the blog. Yeah, every last person who emailed me about it likes the behind the scenes stuff, too. Today's tidbits: I went 12 seconds over in my story tonite at 5 and the producer has not hunted me down yet (which, in fairness, she usually doesn't unless she's really heavy in her newscast or I go 30 seconds or more over.. then I'm BUSTED). And since I didn't have to sit on the set, the back of my hair looks more like a bird's nest than it usually does because the only thing I had to worry about was how it looked from the front. Again, good times.

Email me: sstricklen@kgw.com