Duluth Trading Company is the official Off-Sled Outfitter of the 2022 USA Luge Team, a partnership first formed in 2017. We’re proud to provide the hardworking men and women luge team athletes with our signature cold-weather essentials, including pants, socks, boots, vests and more.
While most athletes need only fine-tune their bodies for peak performance, the USA Luge Team has the added hands-on task of building, maintaining and enhancing their sleds. When the difference between winning and losing comes down to thousandths of a second, what these athletes do behind the scenes in the workshop matters just as much as what they do on the track.
While most athletes need only fine-tune their bodies for peak performance, the USA Luge Team has the added hands-on task of building, maintaining and enhancing their sleds. When the difference between winning and losing comes down to thousandths of a second, what these athletes do behind the scenes in the workshop matters just as much as what they do on the track.
One of the oldest winter sports, luge takes sledding to the extreme by sending a competitor down a steep, icy track feetfirst at speeds as high as 90 miles per hour – all without brakes. Training on and off the sled is paramount for success of @TeamUSA, but what happens in the workshop might matter more in their mettle for medals.
“The technology of our sport is constantly changing,” says Emily Sweeney. “We’re timed to a thousandth of a second, which when you blink your eye is between 4 and 8 thousandths of a second. Slice that time up and that’s how we’re measured against our competitors. So we’re constantly looking for the next thing that’s going to make us just that much faster, because it truly is the difference between winning and losing.”
No matter how long luge has been around, the sport gets by on the innovation of its athletes. “Luge is a very small sport,” says Tucker West, who explains it’s the athletes and coaching staff – not professional technicians or skilled engineers – who get hands-on to make the sleds the best they can be. “We’re in the workshop, fine-tuning every day…We fine-tune runners and we fine-tune the actual sled itself. We’re just always working with tools to find the little extra speed we can.”
One very important tool at the luge team’s disposal is simply what the athletes wear. While aerodynamically designed luge speed suits, helmets, gloves and shoes can help win races, off-sled clothing needs to work even harder to keep pace with these busy, multi-tasking athletes.
“For a luge athlete, a lot of different things go into the day, such as track walks, warmups, keeping warm between runs and so on,” says Jayson Terdiman, who rates Duluth’s Flexpedition® pants as second to none for everything from training and tinkering to traveling and teaching. “I like to be more hands-on and move myself around the track, and I get in some really weird spots [when helping with coaching]. Having the ability to maneuver my body and not worry about my pants ripping is huge for me.”
Flexibility and durability are crucial, but confidence is key. “When you look good you feel good, and when you feel good you race good,” says Terdiman. “And the luge team knows that when we’re wearing Duluth, we look good, it helps us feel good and helps us perform.”
As a company committed to the pursuit of building life with your own two hands, Duluth Trading is proud to be the official Off-Sled Outfitter of the 2022 USA Luge Team, a partnership first formed in 2017. Join us in cheering along the men’s and women’s team of like-minded tinkerers, taunters, fussers, futzers and fine-tuners as they put in the hard work both on and off the track to do what they do best.
