This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
uick now, what was the undisputed "I've-gotta-get-one-of-those" mementos of the Salt Lake City Olympics?
The Roots beret, of course.
Midway through the 2002 Games, 400 people lined up at 6:30 a.m. on back-to-back mornings — cold, cold days, as you might recall — to buy the $19.95 berets from two Gateway stores set up by Roots, a Canadian company that supplied the blue chapeaus with red trim for U.S. athletes' team uniforms.
Park City had a store, too, and lines of buyers. After Katie Couric wore one on the "Today Show," everybody had to have one. Roots shipped in 3,000 from Toronto one day. They were gone within hours.
"It's a souvenir everybody can afford," a Roots employee pitched.
Scalpers wanted $100.
The beret's popularity faded after the Olympics. But every now and then you still see one — and remember the buzz.