by Matt DeLaere, Marketing
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| Mmmm, bacon! [Image from http://www.smellthechange.com] |
If you were asked to name two things that all of humanity loves, you could come up with no better answer than sports and bacon. From high school football in Texas to basketball in Indiana to hockey in Canada and soccer everywhere, sports stoke the competitive fire. And what better way to make use of that fire than to fry up some delicious, crispy bacon?
The Lehigh Valley IronPigs, AAA affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, have combined these two staples of existence in their new “Smell the Change” alternate uniforms. Unveiled on Monday, the IronPigs’ new home Saturday uniforms feature an enticing piece of bacon as their cap logo. Yes, BACON. Additionally, the brick red jersey prominently features the nickname “Pigs” underlined by another piece of bacon. And there’s more – the uniform’s pants have what the IronPigs website describes as “first-of-its-kind bacon-style piping down both legs.” “First of its kind” might be an understatement; I’d go with revolutionary, or ingenious, or quite possibly heavenly, delicious, and divine.
“But wait,” you might be saying, “looking at bacon is nice, but smelling it is the best part.” The IronPigs are one step ahead of you. They’re offering scratch-n-sniff-style bacon logo T-shirts in their team store. Yes, as the product description states, “Shirt smells like actual bacon! Smell lasts for up to 10-15 washes.” Move over Tesla, Edison, and Einstein, the notion of visionary ideas has entered a brave new world.
Whether it’s past innovations like the move from sew-on letters and numbers to heat transfer material pre-cut letters and numbers or more recent technologies, like Stahls’ new TEK™ line of printable heat transfer materials for performance wear, uniform makers and decorators are constantly pushing the envelope for professional and amateur athletes alike. It’s only natural that the evolution of sports uniforms would eventually include bacon, especially from a team named after pork.