This week's merchandising rant

The Pitt Marketing and Merchandising department continues to roll the train of contradiction down the track at an impressive speed.

Despite stating that the old script "Pitt" has not made a return because the new logo and colors sell better, four new items (pictured above) have been introduced and are available online (http://www.shoppittpanthers.com/) and at the team store at the (not Steve) Peterson Center.

It makes the staff at Panther Rants wonder: If the old stuff has such measly sales as some in the marketing department claim, why are the athletic department and Adidas wasting time, energy and money adding new items to the throwback lineup?

The throwback items were inroduced shortly after Adidas was signed as apparel maker about four years ago. What started with a sweathirt and t-shirt has now grown to include four styles of golf shirts, fleece jackets, sweatshirts t-shirts and now shorts. Speaking of the shorts (right), there is no truth to the rumor that, if you buy the white golf shirt and shorts together, they'll toss in the Spotbilts, whistle and clipboard for free. Dear Pitt merchandising department and Adidas, scrap the shorts and give us a visor. A pullover windbreaker would be nice too.

Meanwhile, the new DinoBeagleDogCat has been about as well received as Kanye West at a Ku Klux Klan rally. According to the South Hills Association of Tailgaters (SHAT) website, http://www.talkingshat.com/, the new dinobeagle has been banned from all of its tailgators. SHAT is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and annually makes trips to away games (one particular roadie to Virigina Tech in 2002 nearly resulted in a small christmas tree being set on fire from hot oil from a turkey deep fryer that was dumped on it. Two of its members also got so drunk that weekend that they stumbled into a nursing home instead of their hotel by mistake. is it any wonder why we cite these guys as a credible source?) When ever your most die-hard fans are saying, "ya know what? eff this thing..." you're in trouble.

We'd like to take this opportunity to remind the athletic department that going back to an old logo costs nothing in terms of graphic design since the logo is already designed. Look, if you wanna keep the new colors, fine. We understand that it took a lot of cash to outfit campus police cars, signs, etc. in the new color scheme. But would it kill us to take those new colors and apply them to the old look?

I'll tell ya', it's enough to make you wanna' drink. And when I'm in the mood for a drink, I dunno' about you, but I reach for the old shotglass. and I can think of no better shotglass to reach for than this one, which is also available through Pitt now.