semi frequent merchandising rant

We speculated last month that Steve "Pink Slip from Lincoln" Pederson might strangle the Adidas throwback Script Pitt line of apparel at ShopPittPanthers.com and also carried at the team store on campus. It looks like our prediction could very well be correct, as many of the items on the site have been removed. What was a line of about 40 items midway through the football season has now been reduced to about half that.

If that's the case we are left to believe that its simply back to business as usual with Pederson and his well documented out-of-control ego. He's been on the job two months and the FIRST PRIORITY is killing off a line of clothing that re-connects some fans with a part of the school's history. Not a new season ticket plan for football. Not a new advertising campaign for football. Not anything to make the athletic department more fan friendly and palatable. Nope, Steve reverts back to his good old fashioned obsession: uniforms, logos and colors.

We wouldn't mind this so much if his fashion sense didn't suck so royally. We replaced a clean look in script Pitt with something that looks like the top of a mountain with eyes. And we replaced a distinct color scheme with the colors of Notre Dame, Navy, Georgia Tech and a host of other teams. We replaced readable names and numbers with the "torchcut," a colassal failure from a style and legibility standpoint.

Four years later, Steve again became bored and had the "Super Tooth" invented. Problem is, it looked more like a dinosaur bone from the Carnegie Museum than a tooth, and we're pretty damn sure that the shield was a copyright infringement on the Superman logo. This logo coincided with the decision to go with jeans maker Aeropostale to manufacture sideline apparel while everyone else in the country was snatching up Nike and Adidas and, you know, companies that actually make athletic apparel. Of course, someone in the athletic department would probably tell you that the school wasn't very marketable at that time and they had to go with whomever would have them. We respond by saying that the administration had been in place for four years by then and it was their friggin' job to make the team marketable.

Meanwhile, things that could have been done to improve uniforms never were. The gold jerseys might suck for football but we feel that a gold uniform for basketball would be ideal, especially considering the basketball team always had a gold uniform in its rotation.

We believe (haha! we believe! get it?) that the athletic department needs to create a "director of apparel, uniforms and general fashion" position and name anyone but Pederson to the job. The director would be responsible for collecting data from fans, students and alumni and then determining what look would best serve the school. Not which look that Pederson likes would best serve the school. Maybe then we can finally get a look that doesnt make the school look like a charter member of the WAC, MAC or C-USA.

Of course, that would mean Pederson relinquishing powers. I'm think you'd have a better chance of buying a script Pitt shirt in August than that happening. Then again, it could be worse. After all, we haven't heard any announcements welcoming Hollister or Gabriel Bros. as the new official apparel maker.