Olympic odd lot.

• Position: What's New? Winter Gear & Food Fest - Winter Olympics merchandise - Brief Article

The Winter Olympics are about to overrun Utah in February, and already the hucksters are pushing tie-in merchandise to support the U.S. Ski Team. The sweaters and T-shirts make sense, but some of the other items trigger serious headscratching to find the relevance. After all, why would even the most-dedicated golfer want Ski Team golf balls? Let's just assume there's a market out there for everything and take a look at some of the goods you'll soon be seeing, especially if you make it to the Games themselves.

For warmth, there are vests with the Ski Team logo, either a navyblue Polartec model ($61) or a bright-red nylon one with a blue stripe across the chest ($59). A white mock turtleneck undershirt ($39) has the logo on one cuff. Over-the-calf socks ($18) come with either red-white-and-blue vertical stripes or blue and red ones. To top off this ensemble, a black baseball cap ($22) is adorned with the Ski Team logo in the back, off-center USA 2002 lettering in front...