Ew. This Bruin says “Grodey to the max.”

Those of us that have no familiarity with college athletics could probably use a little more explanation. What’s the mortifying bit that I’m missing?

USC shirt in UCLA colors. (Arch-rivals)

Too bad – I actually like the look of that top shirt. My advice: BUY THEM NOW. These are certain to become collectors items – I bet Nike removes these immediately.

HA! Love it when simple mistakes like this happen, I’m fairly certain the person doing the shirt design didn’t give it a second thought to check colors let alone look at Arch rival to ensure no offense.

Bruins Nation posted about this a while back. Most of us wondered if there were any Trojans that would be that dumb not to realize. Also, earlier the NBA marketed St. Patricks’ Day version shirts of all basketball teams…meaning they were selling a Laker shirt in Celtics colors. FAIL.

But what I think is really going on is that sports merchandise is no longer just about the colors of the team…they are really marketed as fashion objects much more than before, and part of that means getting a hat or a shirt in any color combination that you want. I think the trend really started with Puffy and other hip hop videos in the late 90s, when they wore baseball caps in different color combinations (red Yankees hats, etc.). The manufacturers saw there was a new audience. You can find just about any team selling a pink hat or shirt (the Red Sox really got out early with this one). It’s gotten to the point where the logo has become far removed from actually identifying the team, it just sort of exists as its own object. In that Bruins Nation post, someone said they saw someone wearing a black and orange Dodgers hat…a Dodgers hat in Giants colors. We’re through the looking glass here, people.