Business

Proudly made in the USA . . . for Russia?

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Talk about the agony of defeat!

Ralph Lauren — which got tripped up last week on reports that it was making uniforms for this year’s US Olympic team in China — said in a face-saving gesture Friday that it will produce Made-in-the-USA uniforms for the winter games in 2014.

But sources said Ralph Lauren and the US Olympic Committee, which had signed off on the Chinese-made goods, have been beaten to the punch by a rather embarrassing competitor — Russia’s Olympic team.

Since 2011, the Russian Olympic team has been in talks with Los Angeles-based American Apparel for a deal to design its clothing for the 2014 games, sources confirmed.

“[Russian Olympic team representatives] said they didn’t want anything that was made in China,” American Apparel CEO Dov Charney told The Post. “It’s not just for the uniforms — it’s also the merchandise.”

Meanwhile, Charney — whose hipster clothing chain is the largest US-based apparel manufacturer — says the US Olympic Committee has never approached his company about a potential deal for clothing or merchandise for Team USA.

US Olympic Committee officials didn’t respond to phone calls seeking comment.

The US Olympic Committee isn’t the only patriotic operation to snub American clothing makers, according to Joel Joseph, co-founder of the Made in USA Foundation.

A slew of federal operations buy clothing and sell stuff that’s mostly from China, Joseph says.

Even uniforms worn by US Transportation Security Administration officials at US airports and other high-security areas are made in Pakistan, according to Joseph.

“Talk about a security breach,” he said.

Meanwhile, Charney says Wall Street continues to favor China by financing clothing imports instead of textile equipment for US manufacturers.

“The banking oligarchy wrote off a US textile industry that was ailing in the late 1990s,” Charney said. “Now, the industry is completely disposed to importing — they don’t know any other way.”