Seriously, everywhere.
Now, I get that there are trends. There have been many times throughout my three decades of consciousness concerning the world around me that there have been items of apparel that have seemed, for a season or so, ubiquitous. It seems like only yesterday that everyone everywhere seemed to be wearing heavily ventilated plastic garden shoes for no apparent reason.
But nothing has really prepared me for the Canadians and their red mittens.
Now, I haven’t done any sort of count, but it seems that at least every other person I see on the street in Ottawa is sporting these exact mittens (or ‘mitts’ as they usually call them). The comparison is skewed, I believe, by some inscrutable element of patriotic sentiment, I suppose. I believe these have something to do with marketing for last year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver, but a year later they remain as ubiquitous as ever. Have these mittens become a wearable counterpart to the small United States flags that became very nearly obligatory to mount on ones vehicle in the months following 9⁄11? Is this the best way the Canadians have found of flaunting their still-youthful patriotism? Or is it a practical thing: are these mittens really just that good?
I think we’re just practical people, wearing mitts that have a lot of good use left in them after the Olympics… And hey, they look pretty sharp too! : )
But then that kicks back the question to: why did so many of you buy these mittens in the first place? Did the proceeds go to some outstanding cause? Were they a really great deal? Or were you all just really that excited about the Olympics?
I don’t know about the red mittens, but I can certainly vouch for the extreme comfort factor of the ‘heavily ventilated garden shoes’. A pair of colour-coordinated socks makes them quite wearable, even in the middle of winter. As to the popularity factor, that’s neither here nor there as far as I am concerned.