London-based design agency We Launch "created a new identity for the Jamaican bobsleigh and skeleton athletes" at Pyeongchang 2018 -- "aiming to separate the team from its comedic association" with the movie "Cool Runnings," according to Tom Ravenscroft of DEZEEN. The rebrand comes 30 years after the team's "first, now infamous, appearance" at the Winter Games, which was immortalized in the '93 film. Working pro bono, We Launch created a new visual identity that "differs from that seen in the film -- aiming to change public perceptions of the team" and position it as one of "the world's foremost sliding nations." We Launch Founder & Creative Dir Stuart Lang said, "The goal of the project was to get away from the association with Cool Runnings. Whilst the movie was a great vehicle for allowing the world to know that there was, in fact, a Jamaican bobsleigh team, it was a comedy -- and has meant that nobody outside the two sports [bobsleigh and skeleton] has taken the organization seriously ever since." The rebrand was undertaken after Jamaica's national bobsleigh and skeleton teams merged to form one organization -- the Jamaican Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (DEZEEN, 2/16).
HOORAY BOBSLED: The JAMAICA GLEANER reported beer brand Red Stripe bought and donated a bobsled to the JBSF "just days ahead" of its participation in the Pyeongchang Games. Coach Sandra Kiriasas on Wednesday "quit the team after a role dispute with the JBSF" and "threatened to take with her" the team's sled, which she said she owned. That led to Red Stripe reaching out via Twitter and offering to "provide a sled as a gift" for the two-woman bobsled team of Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian and Carrie Russell (JAMAICA GLEANER, 2/15).