Team Merchandise, Apparel for Fans
Does Your School Offer the Latest Creative Football Promotion Items?
Is your favorite school offering you the latest, most clever pieces of team promotion merchandise, souvenirs and collectibles?
Has it put its logo on every possible piece of apparel, collectible and merchandise? Is it recognizing your needs as a football fanatic? If not, it may be time to reevaluate the merchandise manager because your tailgating needs are real and college merchandising is very big business. They fire coaches and college presidents, don’t they?
Practically every school offers a variety of officially licensed, logo-decorated caps, T-shirts, visors, golf shirts, jerseys, polo shirts, ponchos, sweat shirts and jackets for both men and women.
Most of them also market team apparel for infants and pets, making sure that they too share the school spirit.
Creative Merchandise
But look at what some of the more creative schools are offering:
Ohio State has a limited edition (only 5,000) wooden football. It is 7.5 inches tall, made of maple and laser-engraved with the Buckeye logo, plus the records of its seven national championship teams, starting back in 1942. Just $47.99.
Or you can get a similar wooden football inscribed with just the team logo. That’s only $37.95. The manufacturer makes similar balls for Southern Cal, Notre Dame, Auburn, Oklahoma and several professional teams.
Remembering The Four Horsemen
Notre Dame offers a faux leather helmet "inspired by the greatest backfield ever, the 1924 season made memorable by Knute Rockne and the immortal Four Horsemen." It has an embroidered "ND" logo and a polyester lining. That’s something the Four Horsemen didn’t have because polyesther wasn’t developed until the 1940s. They say one size helmet fits most folks. Just $34.
You can get a cover for your car’s spare tire, beautifully decorated with a team logo that’s almost as big as the tire. $38.
Another manufacturer markets an infant polo romper with your favorite team’s logo. Instill school spirit into the little fellow for just $20.
Animal Hats
The colleges are also catching up with the famous Green Bay "cheesehead" hat. Alabama has an elephant-shaped hat, Arkansas a Razorback-shaped one and, of course, Auburn, Clemson and LSU all offer Tiger-shaped hats. Each is as eye-catching (read ugly) as the other. $21.95 each.
Alabama also has a Houndstooth hat, reminiscent of the legendary Bear Bryant hat. LSU countered with a straw hat similar to the one worn by Tiger Coach Nick Sabin when he took the team to the 2003 national championship. Since he has moved over to Alabama, it is probably no longer a popular Tiger item.
Auburn, like some other schools, offers a full size, high gloss replica of the team helmet with an authentic steel face mask. But, the manufacturer warns, it has no interior padding and is for ornamental use only, not for actual play.
You can buy a "Big 12 Conference Stein" which holds 24 ounces of your favorite beverage. It carries the logos of all 12 teams in the conference. $28.95
Some manufacturers even offer an "imagine that" category for the more creative colleges. Examples:
--Florida-- "Gator dolls" and a Monopoly-like board game it calls "Gatoropoly."
--Tulane--A 12-inch wall clock imprinted with a Green Wave emblem.
--Oklahoma--A Halloween Pumpkin with the team logo.
--Several colleges-- Kids’ building blocks with team logos.
--Georgia Tech and some other schools-- Sheets of temporary tattoos of the team logo..
--Several colleges--A variety of dog sweaters and collars that are sure to make them bark..
