Despite having worked at the bookstore for about a year now, until this point I haven't bought one single new piece of gopher gear for myself. One would think it would be pretty enticing, I am there quite often, I know every item in the store, know what sizes are available and know how to get any size that I would need, and get an employee discount. So why haven't I? There is nothing wrong with displaying gopher pride, and there are quite a few items in the store that I really really like and would definitely wear. Part of the reason that I don't buy anything is that I strongly associate being at the bookstore with being at work, and I don't think that I should be spending excess time in the store without working, and feel bad tacking extra time on to my shift, on or off the clock. Whenever I have things to do at the bookstore that don't involve work (usually involving buying supplies) I know exactly what I need and am in and out quite quickly, because if I am scheduled to work that means I don't have time to and therefore don't have a lot of time to kill because I need to be somewhere else in a hurry. However, this Saturday I caved. I was working before the Homecoming football game and knew the weather was just a bit on the chilly side. I do have two Maroon and Gold sweatshirts to wear, and was in fact wearing my old maroon hoodie with a big felt gold M emblazoned on the front, but despite the chill had been quite hot to walk around in and be outside in. The only Gopher tshirts I have have all been free or basically free - shirts from welcome week and from hockey and football season tickets, so they are all short sleeved. Recently I had been thinking it would be nice to have a long sleeved MN tshirt to wear in weather like this, or at hockey games when it is slightly chilly but not always cool enough for a jacket. And when I say recently, it has been almost all year that I have been contemplating getting a long sleeved shirt. The homecoming sale was going on and everything was 25% off, 5% more than my employee discount so I figured I might as well take advantage of this sale and get a shirt for even cheaper.
The shirt I had been thinking about is our most basic, most plain, and always in stock or on order tshirt. There are four color options white w/ maroon, maroon w/gold, gold w/ maroon, and gray w/ maroon. It is a basic unisex long sleeve tshirt style with "MINNESOTA" written across the chest in a slight arc in heat pressed letters. Like I said, it is so basic that it is one of our staples, and therefore it is also slightly cheaper than many of our other long sleeves at 19.99 full price. The reason I liked this shirt was because it was so basic and classy - nothing extra, nothing that will get really outdated really fast, and it is super easy to look at and read. I chose the maroon with gold letters because I don't like to wear large amounts of gold, I already have quite a few gray short sleeved tshirts, and because white gets dirty so quickly and it would be worn in the winter which and is a little more of a 'summery' color choice. So anyways. Also, the maroon with gold combo is also the exact colors of our university so it is maximizing the school spirit possible :)
I have been thinking more recently that I'd like to do my display project on something to do with "selling ski-u-mah" and the promotion of school spirit. How students buy in to it, alumni, fans, family members, etc buy in to the school spirit of the U of M and the many outlets they have to do that. Gopher pride clothing at the bookstore or at Goldy's locker room, buying sports tickets, the new goldy statue and fundraising efforts, having the gopher mascot bopping around campus, and how the U creates and/or promotes a sense of school spirit.
No comments:
Post a Comment