1.      Ravelry is an online social networking site exclusively for knitters and crocheters. Recently the site has gotten flack because of one site members’ idea. Kimberli Smith was the first to think of the Ravelympics – a sort of competition for the sites members to complete tough projects while watching the Olympics. Everything was fine for 2008 and 2010, but for the London games in 2012, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USCO) stepped in asking them to stop.  The USCO said it was disrespectful to the hard work the athletes put in by using the term Ravelympics. This, of course, caused a huge uproar in the knitting community.

 

This is not the first time the group has been contacted by the USCO. In 2010 they were awarding members with a pin of a dog wearing a knit hat and gold medal; this said badge infringed on intellectual property rights. The group stopped issuing them immediately. The new problem with the Ravelympics highlights the problem of copyright protection on the internet. Some patterns and projects feature symbols such as Batman or a sports teams’ logo. It was several Olympic themed items online that were also mentioned in the cease-and-desist letter from the USCO.

 

Now what’s really causing an uproar, even in the comments section of the article, is the fact that the letter sent to Ravelry members mentions that the knitting event insults the Olympic athletes. Many people are upset and outraged because the Olympics was once an event for amateur athletes only. One commenter, Dez Crawford, points out that  sports such as “synchronized swimming and table tennis suffer insults from people who don't think those are "real" sports, and that is EXACTLY how insulted a knitter feels to read the content of the original cease-and-desist letter” (2012). Another commenter makes the point that the USCO probably hasn’t trademarked every use of the word Olympics, but she is more upset by the fact that Committee lost the chance for a great marketing partnership with Ravelry. In my opinion, this would have been a great opportunity to shine some light on a niche community of “amateurs”. Nike, Coca Cola and Visa, we’ve all heard of many times before, but it wasn’t until this article that I had ever heard of Ravelry. It seems like the USCO has really poked the hornet’s nest with this one though, because members of the site are up in arms.

 

So for a recap about this societal trend: the WHO, Kimberli Smith who coined the name “Ravelympics; the WHAT, USCO insulting a large group of knitters and the backlash; the WHY, knitting has exponentially grown in popularity; the WHERE, the online blogging community, Ravelry; the WHEN, following the 2012 Summer Olympics, and now when blogging and online communities are at a height. As to how this could result in a fashion trend? I’m predicting a rise in overall knitwear and crochet! This may very well lead to knitted partnerships too.