NHL: St. Louis Blues

Last night, the St. Louis Blues mixed their St. Patrick’s Day commemoration with environmental awareness, and gave away a “Green Game” t-shirt to all fans in attendance (quite a risky claim to advertise – from personal experience, you should always give an exact number of giveaways, a la “first 5,000 fans”). The shirt giveaway was sponsored by Monsanto, a Cambridge, MA based agricultural innovation company with an emphasis on sustainable practices. This was the second year for the Blues promotion.

Shirt Grade: B I like the muted, antiquey kelly green shirt and faded style of the print. It also helps that the Blues’ team colors happen not to horribly clash with green. Kudos for using that to their advantage and not changing the logo’s colors for the holiday’s sake. Environmental awareness initiatives during games are the new “it” thing to do in sports marketing – trust me, I participate in one – but the giveaway needs to be backed up with sustained, but subtle, green initiatives, otherwise it is just a t-shirt giveaway.

AHL: Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins

The Baby Pens (speaking of, we are long overdue for an edition of The Everyone’s Favorite Goalie Watch, but that’ll be another post) are selling two St. Patrick’s Day long sleeve shirts in their online store. The 2009 edition ($20) features their mascot, Tux, skating with a four leaf clover in the background on the front. The back reads “Happy St. Patrick’s Day.” The 2010 version ($22) features the logo in what appears to be a very dark green (nearly black), with a four leaf clover on the sleeve. Long sleeve shirts are always key in that part of Pennsylvania, where the damp gray chilly days seem to out number any other weather.

Grade: C The effort is there, but the execution is not. The 2009 version is too campy, and the 2010 version shows promise, but the green seems too dark. Kudos, however, for the 2010 edition’s four leaf clover on the sleeve.

ECHL: Gwinnett Gladiators

The ECHL Gwinnett Gladiators teamed with Old Time Hockey, the same Salisbury, MA based company who partnered to create some of the NHL’s 2010 St. Patrick’s Day gear, to create a green t-shirt to sell this March. The shirt ($20 with free shipping through today) features a rather disturbed and surly looking leprechaun brandishing a hockey stick, with a small Gladiators logo by his right foot. The all-caps font is rather 1950s style, and arches above Surly Leprechaun’s head.

Grade: A This is the first ever St. Patrick’s Day shirt I would ever consider purchasing, and not just because I’m in the market for a shirt from the team where two of my most favorite former BU hockey alums play. What sold me was the 1950s fonts – I’m a sucker for fonts. Plus, I feel like Surly Leprechaun is going to hurt me with that hockey stick if I don’t like the shirt.

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The back of the Gryba Senior Shirt.

This year’s shirt honors BU senior defenseman Eric Gryba – lover of flannel, avid hunter and fisherman, and the tallest defenseman since Tom Morrow (the subject of Jason’s 2006 shirt). Gryba is a fan favorite everytime he checks an opposing player or even thinks about getting in a position to score. The BU student section responds to Gryba much like fourteen year old suburban teenagers react to Nick Jonas – there’s screaming, cheering, and the occassional sobbing.

Gryba is a stand-up defenseman who is very comfortable with his role on defense – he’s not often trying to be fancy with the puck, and he very conscientious of his duties at the blue line. He holds the program’s record for penalty minutes, set during January 2nd’s game, but he’s not necessarily a dirty player. His penalties come from his tendency to play at the boards during defensive situations – he isn’t always laying guys out, elbowing, or aiming for player’s heads. It will be interesting to see what he does after college.

Gryba may not be my favorite BU player ever, but he’s definitely a personality I have enjoyed watching progress through his collegiate hockey career. Thus, I took $15 out of my wedding fund and ordered one of these shirts from Jason.

If you too want to commemorate the personality that is Gryba by purchasing a t-shirt, find “The Hockey Shirt at Boston University” group on Facebook and chat with Jason. The shirt is only $15, which is a deal when it comes to any fan shirts. Orders are due Tuesday, February 9th.

The NFL Snuggie. The horrors.

I never truly believed the apocalypse was near until I saw this.

To celebrate the beginning of the NFL pre-season, HSN has been selling the NFL Huddler (aka an NFL Snuggie) all day. To demonstrate its use, they are continuously showing a group of male and female models sitting on the back of a pickup truck eating with various teams’ Huddlers on.

Oh, because the people tailgating in Orchard Park, Pittsburgh, Philly, or Oakland aren’t going to beat you up for wearing a massive piece of team printed felt with arms while grilling and kicking back beers in their vicinity.

Sports fans, if you fear being cold while watching a game, I would like to introduce you to this nifty invention called a jacket. Last I checked, they worked really well for most of human kind.

No R Lifestyle's Green Champions Shirt

Kat: Why did you found No R Lifestyle?

Buddy: While the general idea of Boston apparel is not novel, we wanted to give the people of Boston and its surroundings something different to wear. We’ve all heard the term Masshole and seen shirts with mispronounced phrases on them, and we wanted to do something different. We set out to create a brand that points to the common attitude and demeanor with which Bostonians live their lives. There really is a lifestyle common among all of us although we come from many different walks of life. The lifestyle is centered on the deep pride people have in Boston, and the whole New England area, and the most common identifier of this shared lifestyle is the No R accent. I’ve heard many say that people from the Northeast are cocky and arrogant; I say it’s more of a confidence and comfort. That’s the feeling we are going for with No R Lifestyle.

Kat: You have a goal of selling a shirt in all 50 states, and you have 10 states down. That’s a lofty goal for a business only 18 weeks old! Why did you set such a goal?

Buddy: When we first launched the website in January, we expected all of our sales to be local and concentrated our “marketing” in Massachusetts alone. We became excited when we quickly received orders from Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Maine in addition to Massachusetts and also realized that this brand is identifiable to anyone who has ever lived in or visited Boston, as well as those who are simply fans of the accent or the city itself. Because the ‘No R’ accent is probably the most recognizable in the world, we think it is a reasonable goal for No R Lifestyle to appeal to someone from each of the 50 states. The first year or so of No R Lifestyle is about establishing the name and idea behind it, and this is just another way to encourage growth and expansion.

Kat: What does being a Boston sports fan mean to you? Why is it different from other cities/regions?

Buddy: Boston is a sports town in the truest sense of the phrase. The city’s mood depends on how the Celts, Pats, Sox, or Bruins (Revolution, Cannons, and Blazers for some) did last night. I’ll never forget walking around Boston after the Superbowl loss to the Giants. Everyone I passed looked like they were attending a funeral. On the flip side, most Boston fans’ joy lasts only a day or so before its time to be “disappointed” by the next game, team, or season. This negativity is more applicable to the last generation of Boston fans. The last decade has really shaped a new breed of fans—fans with optimism. It will take some getting used to, but I think it will be good for the overall well being of New England.

Kat: You’ve obviously embraced your “No R” accent. What is your favorite word/phrase to say with that accent? (For example, I have a slight Canadian accent and I love saying the word “sorry” because of it.)

Buddy: For some reason I said two hours a lot while coaching baseball at Emerson College, whether it be two hours until game time, two hours of practice, or a two hour bus ride. All of these future television and radio personalities are quick to point out mispronounced words. “Two Owiz” quickly became a common phrase among the players who like to mock my Boston accent. I’m pretty sure they mimic the accent out of pure jealousy. A side note on the topic of the accent itself: I’m hoping with a lot of Boston based movies coming out in 2009 and 2010, that they finally get the accent right. I never understood why Boston actors absolutely overdo the accent that they grew up speaking, and other actors just completely butcher it (watch The Perfect Storm and you’ll know what I mean). It’s a pretty simple accent to nail; leave R’s off the end of words and add them on to words that end in A.

Kat: What’s next for No R Apparel? I see that you have added bumper stickers to the line – do you have any plans to add additional items, or have the items carried in retail locations?

Buddy: Ideally, at some point down the road we will have hundreds of different products ranging from onesies for babies to tire covers for jeep wranglers. In the immediate future, there are plans for hats to be released, and designs are being bounced around for hoodies to be produced in the fall of ’09. We are also contacting Boston area colleges in the hopes of doing some custom shirts with the University or College names on them. This whole experience is a learning process, and we love to hear feedback from customers and fans about what they want to see.

Most retail companies have already completed their apparel purchases for the year, so we have been unsuccessful in our attempts to get our products in stores this summer. If there are any retailers out there who would like to feature No R Lifestyle apparel, please let us know!

*******

Thanks, Buddy, for taking the time to talk. Buddy would like to giveaway shirts to a few readers of …On Being a Sports Girl. If you know the answer to the following Red Sox trivia question, email the answer, your name and email address to me at sportsgirlkat@gmail.com.  The first three correct answers will be sent to Buddy to receive a free shirt!

Trivia question: What former Boston Red Sox player is the only person in Major League Baseball history to turn an unassisted triple play and hit for the cycle during his career?

Update 6/1/2009: The contest is now closed! Big ups to our winners!

I had a great phone conversation with Gentry a few weeks back, and he agreed to be one of my first “Five questions with…” subjects. Here’s the interview!

Kat: Why did you found CPR Gear?

Ryan: I always wanted to have something to do with sports in New England. I’ve been a personal trainer for fourteen years, but haven’t had the chance to work with any of the professional sports teams. A friend and I had been toying with the idea (for the line) for a few months, and my son’s birth was the impetus for the creation of the company.

I wanted to pass onto him that being a New England sports fan is more than loving a team – it’s like a religion or family. Players always change, but the one thing that always stays the same are the fans. They are always there. Being a Boston sports fan is a real uniting factor – I have been in Machu Picchu and have met people with Red Sox gear on, and have been able to spark a conversation with them because they were wearing their Sox gear. I have been in a bar in the Caribbean and made a connection with the owner because he too was a Boston sports fan from my hometown of Lawrence, Massachusetts.  You can make a lot of connections with complete strangers because of the devotion of Boston sports fans all over.

I started to type a creed of what it means to be a Boston sports fan taking all of that into account, and that is what appears on the inside tag of all of our shirts. The acronym “CPR”  is just the acronym – there’s no slight intended to anyone, because at the end of the day, it’s about all New England sports, including Olympic and college athletes.

CPR Gear's Boston Bruins women's t-shirt - I'm giving one away (see the end of the interview!)

Kat: Like you, I am a fan of my hometown teams away from home. Living in California, how do you stay connected? Do you take pride in keeping up your devotion living so far away?

Ryan: I absolutely have more pride (living away from New England.) I can’t stand not being at home when big events go on in Boston sports. I rarely get to see any of the Boston sports teams live – I will go down to Anaheim to see the Sox, LA to see the Celtics, and sometimes I get to see the Patriots. I rarely get to see the Bruins here in California. When one of my hometown teams are playing here in California and I get to see them, it feels like one of those nice early spring days – you get all excited.

When New England teams are playing outside of California, I’ll go down to Sonny McLean’s to connect, which is a big sports bar for all Boston fans. At one point, I definitely went there once a week for four years.

Kat:  You talk about a “go to” shirt on your web site – your favorite shirt, the one you must wear to watch any of your favorite teams. What is your “go to” shirt now? What was it growing up?

Ryan:  Right now, it is a Patriots Vince Wilfolk jersey. You do not see a lot of Wilfork jerseys in New England, let alone in California. I really like him as a player. I also have a green Red Sox jersey that I wore during every important game in 2004. Growing up, I had a green Celtics shirt with all the 1980s players and numbers on it that I wore all the time. And then, I had these solid white Celtics warm up pants – 1980s style. They probably would be considered atrocious now!

Kat: CPR Gear has some awesome women’s fan wear, both in traditional team colors and in pink. What has been the response? With all the criticism around the “pink hat” fans, why did you choose to design some pink shirts?

Ryan:  Fan wear for women needs to be less cheesy. For the longest time, women were regulated to too oversized crusty jerseys that just didn’t fit their shape and were not flattering. CPR Gear is making shirts that are more refined and stylish, and that fit people, particularly women, well.

As for the pink question, before we designed the line, we polled women in Boston about what they were looking for in this line. Many voted for pink, so we included pink shirts in our line. But we have traditional team colored items for women as well.

The entire line is higher quality than normal fan gear. The t-shirt fabric of is a very high quality, very vintage and soft. The design isn’t loud. You can wear the shirts to dinner before or after the game without looking out of place. We are looking to make more of a lifestyle brand – fan wear that could go anywhere. I think women will appreciate that.

Kat: Where will you be taking the company in 2009?

Ryan: We will continue to sell CPR Gear online. I like the online aspect – it is like you got a shirt custom made just for you. You know you can’t just get these shirts anywhere.  We may expand into boutique stores, because of the lifestyle nature of the brand. This will help reach out to local Boston die-hard fans. I recently had a chance encounter with Jonathan Kraft (son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft) and gave him some shirts, and hopefully something may come of that. I hope to keep getting the word out and spreading the fan base, and uniting the Boston sports community.

The First SportsGirlKat Contest!

Thanks, Ryan, for the fun interview! I definitely enjoyed our phone conversation. CPR Gear has graciously provided me with three of their shirts from their women’s line to give away to my readers. I’ll give them away to those of you with the best comments surrounding the following question – What is/was your go-to sports fan wear item? Comment before Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at noon Eastern time to have your answer considered to win!