Musings About College Merchandise
I was walking into my local grocery store this past weekend when I see an older woman wearing a sweatshirt of the college I attend. The shirt had the name in giant, bold letters, which was more prominent that my (albeit small) gamut of school shirts, and caught my eye immediately. Knowing everyone from my state who attends said college, and rarely running into any alumni while in New Mexico, I greet her and ask what her affiliation with the school was (in a discrete way). She gave me a funny look, stated her daughter had visited the school in June, and then walked past me. Expecting a warm reception and possibly the exchange of anecdotes (as has been the case with other students and former-students I have encountered), and got to thinking of people wearing college merchandise that they really had little to no affiliation with.
I have run into various people over the past few months who are wearing shirts of schools they know nothing about. I have humiliated myself several times approaching people in various hoodies, shirts, etc. and assuming they actually did go to the schools printed on their shirts, only to be informed they owned them for other reasons. I perfectly understand some of these reasons, such as having a sibling or other relatives who go to that school, or as a gift from a friend who attends that college. I even think it's fine for people to wear an orange jacket with 'Princeton' boldly printed on the front if they are, in fact, from the city of Princeton, New Jersey. I suppose, in retrospect, the woman I ran into would fall into one of these categories and thus cannot criticized...that point aside, I have encountered people who wear such university-promoting shirts for the wrong reasons.
The first case of this was when I ran into a kid at the bookstore wearing a Harvard shirt. Knowing a bit about the school, and being a bit bored, I thought I would talk to him. A moment or two into conversation, the topic of his school came up, and he admitted rather sheepishly he was just wearing the shirt to look smart. I found this somewhat odd, and still do to this day. I didn't bother to think too much about it, chalking it up to be an isolated incident, and forget about it until it happened again the following week.
I have run into this several times this summer, and just found it strange how people think it is some status symbol to wear a university's logo or name just as a status symbol. I don't see why people value these few 'brand name' schools as being something worth lying about, especially when this country (and world) is filled with alumni and interested parties who will happily call their bluff.
Why people can't just be proud of and enjoy their own universities is also a question to be asked, along with the reasoning of why these same people assume that attending a well-known university makes you special.
I agree with you completely. Whenever I visited colleges, I never picked up their merchandise, because I don't like when people wear clothing from other colleges. Actually, I feel the same way about wearing shirts featuring names of places one has never been, though that "My [relative] Went To [place] and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt" T-shirt line was an inspired marketing ploy, before it became really old.
How about this: a new line of shirts that say "My Daughter Visited [school] in June and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt. (By the way, she [was rejected/got in but went somewhere better])."
It's also a bit silly to pay the high prices necessary to purchase such merchandise, a chunk of which no doubt goes to the school. I realize the only way to really deal with this issue is to confront people when you see them with said shirts, and casually talk about the location. It will either result in a nice common point of interest in which a greater conversation can develop, or it will humiliate them a bit (having never been to/attended the place), and make them think twice about wearing that shirt again. Not that I care too much about the issue, or have the nerve to confront such people.
I'm actually surprised how many people I see wearing ivy league shirts in my home state, where I know (or have at least heard of) pretty much every kid attending the school...likewise, back at college, I have seen people wearing 'New Mexico' and even 'Arizona' shirts, and I know for a fact none of them are from those states. I realize in writing all this it sounds a little pretentious or otherwise rambling about an issue of little importance...but at least I accept this whole issue has little value or substance.
I agree that it would be nicer if people only wore merchandise from a school they or their children had actually attended, but one exception does come to mind: on the 80s sitcom Too Close For Comfort, Harry (Ted Knight) was in the habit of wearing sweatshirts from different colleges -- too many for him to have possibly attended. It was a fun, harmless gimmick.