An alert reader -- Les Hall from Charlotte -- pointed this T-shirt out to me. He was surfing the Nike website this week, he wrote, and looking for new Carolina Panther stuff. He came across this odd T-shirt. It indicates that someone associated with Nike believed that the Panthers play in South Carolina. Or that North Carolina's silhouette looked like South Carolina. Or something. You can note if you look closely that there's a picture of South Carolina on the shirt, as well as a Panther logo, and there's an "NC" labeled on the S.C. silhouette in the top left corner.
It's clear somebody messed up. Nike has taken down the direct link to the T-shirt, so you can't buy this anymore at store.nike.com. Hall did purchase it before it was taken down, however -- for $32, no less -- and then sent me a backup copy of the picture that he got in Nike's official confirmation of his order (I had earlier checked the link, and it was indeed there for awhile). His Nike confirmation said the shirt was going to be shipped later, however, and turns out it was -- he got it on Friday. It looked just like the picture.
I have been in contact with Nike's media relations department and they are investigating what happened. I will let you know what they say when I hear back from them.
In the meantime, what do you think about this? Shouldn't everyone know where Charlotte is by now? This isn't the mid-1980s, after all, when we used to get confused with Charlottesville, Va., and Charleston, S.C., in the pre-Hornet days.
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53 comments:
I would totally buy this at a reduced price just for the hilarity of it...
LOL, must have been a CMS grad who designed the shirt.
Gee, I wonder if the Observer ever makes mistakes.
By reading the observer you would think that Charlotte is located in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle.
This has to make Jerry Richardson proud.
After all, in spite of more than 90%of the Panthers' ticket base coming from NC, and the city of Charlotte providing the land for the stadium and agreeing to his extortion demands (heaven forbid he build those new escalators with his OWN money), and mostly Charlotte residents providing the PSL money that got his stadium built in the first place, after all that, we still have to endure the name "CAROLINA Panthers" instead of the "CHARLOTTE Panthers" it should have been in the first place. The city has missed out on a lot of indirect publicity over the years because of that. So something like this is not terribly surprising.
Thanks a lot Jerry. You ingrate.
Thanks for the laugh. Collectors will love getting their hands on one. I'll be checking flea markets. :-)
This post brings up another argument. Why aren't the Panthers named the Charlotte Panthers or North Carolina Panthers? South Carolina provides 0 fan support for this team. Check out Deadspin.com's facebook fan map:
http://deadspin.com/5979970/facebook-data-provides-the-most-accurate-nfl-fandom-map-ever-created
The majority of the state is Bandwagon Steeler fans. Time to move the training camp to a NC city that actually cares about the team.
Archiguy,
Charlotte wasn't large enough to support an NFL team at the time of its inception. The name "Carolina" provided a much larger perceived fan base, ensuring that Charlotte would get the team. Richardson was actually very intelligent by choosing "Carolina" over "Charlotte"
The only thing better would have been for NIKE to have been printed it for Michael Jordan's Bobcats.
Nice job of trying to enlarge a thumbnail. I guess that was Nikes faught too
nice picture of the shirt :-/
I guess all of you whining about the name Carolina have forgotten that the first season was played in SC.
No worries- its SPORTS and its PANTHERS people around here buy it-
The funniest part was that first pic you had up. Had about 10 pixels total. That was hilarious!
You kill me scott! I love it!
Oh, common we know Nike knows where North Carolina is. It is the same place they have been spending a boatload of money ever since Coach Smith switched from Converse. Nike just thinks NC ends in Chapel HILL.
Looks like something at BustedTees. Would go nicely along the THE BEETLES BIGGEST FAN tee.
Thanks Nike for realizing the Teapublicans in Raleigh are turning us into SC.
The sad thing is that if they fix it and put it on a North Carolina silouette, it'd be a cool shirt, & i'd buy it.
Further proof that Charlotte needs to disassociate itself from NC. Take a page from the folks in Colorado who are trying to secede from that state. Getting away from Raleigh isn't a bad thing.
@anonymous 10:00 a.m.--yes the Charlotte Observer makes mistakes, but they don't charge $32.00 an article. :-)
Are we sure Miss South Carolina isn't working at Nike?
Greenville, SOUTH Carolina fan checking in here...There are indeed Panther fans outside of North Carolina. I wouldn't mind if they changed to the Charlotte Panthers, but I appreciate the Carolina connection.
The way Governor McCheese is handling things, I'd rather see Charlotte in SC.
I want one!
South Carolina seems to be better known than North Carolina. More history, I guess.
We aren't South Carolina? Someone needs to the Grubenor and his merry band of legislators in the Imperial City.
20/20 the other night used a shot of Charlotte's skyline in a story about Charleston, WV.
Uh, NIKE knows EXACTLY where Charlotte is - they send MJ VERY large endorsement / royalty checks every month.
Failboat!
Everyone knows Charlotte is part of SC. At least Raleigh thinks so.
Perhaps it's because actions of the NC General Assembly have turned NC into SC...all we're missing is flying the Confederate flag over the state Capitol in Raleigh...
Why not? The University of South Carolina thinks they are "Carolina" anyway.
If the tag says "Made in SC", then it makes total sense.
wow, the amount of negativity that is coming from these comments regarding the Panthers, Jerry Richardson, and the Carolina's is unreal lol. You guys must really hate where you live and you represent. The Panthers are a good organization and Jerry Richardson is not a crook haha. Why is he an extortionist when he basically built the entire stadium on his own to begin with? Other teams have the city/state pick up the entire thing! also, he's paying more out of his pocket for the upgrades than the city is.. just because he asks for help from the city/state like EVERY other single NFL team does, that makes him a crook? lol, you people are ridiculous..go find something else to complain about.
There are a lot of seemingly smart people in this country who are totally ignorant when it comes to geography.
Only an uneducated, sheltered person wouldn't be aware of Charlotte. That encompasses 60 percent of Charlotte itself. Charlotte is as well known worldwide as cities like Phoenix, San Diego, Portland, Austin, and Pittsburgh. I would say that a person in most countries could likely find Charlotte on a map than someone that recently graduated from CMS.
NC < MJ > Hornets/Bobcats < Charlotte > NBA > Nike> (: Come on Nike! After all those MJ commercials!!Good grief!
Had to have been a Charter school kid or private school that designed the shirt LOL.
Ha ha
Archeguy said:
"After all, in spite of more than 90%of the Panthers' ticket base coming from NC..."
Care to back this up with actual facts? or Scott Fowler, would you care to fact-check this? As one who has crossed the border faithfully for as long as the Panthers have existed and seeing that I am always among a great number that do likewise, regardless of how the season is going, I'm sure that we amount to more than 10%!!! I'm not claiming that a majority of the fans in the stadium are from southern exposure, but I suspect that we're more than 10% Pretty insulting...
I agree with the other commentor who says that the Observer thinks that it is located in the Research Triangle area; I guess it might surprise them to discover that the state line is a close as Carowinds...
Solid evidence that the Kitty Kats and the BOBcats aren't even remotely part of the national sports conversation.
NYC sports radio NEVER brings up either team -- ever!
Huge Panther fan here from SC. And I like CAROLINA as the name. I loved being a part of getting the team here, and I also love seeing the training camp here every year. I like that it encompasses an entire region, much like New England...they aren't the BOSTON Patriots....and yes, I realize that don't play right inside Boston....but it's similar. Thanks, Mr. Richardson for caring about ALL of the Carolinas....North and South...when you named the team!
It's a hipster thing. So ironic.
Or Wal-Mart's new Hurney clothing line.
tyler, re: "just because he asks for help from the city/state like EVERY other single NFL team does..."
Didn't our mothers rightly teach us, just because everyone else does something doesn't make it right?
I'll gladly support Jerry's request, the day the city/state cuts me and everyone else a proportional check for what my/our taxes, and consumer spending go toward bettering the city/state.
sedlyau2I'm from Charlotte, born in Presbyterian and raised off the Plaza and I don't mind sharing the name with So.Caro if thats what it took to get the panthers here although I would like for the name to be The Charlotte Panthers. It's all good cuz if you don't know where Charlotte is your a moron anyway. The stadium is uptown and we ALL know whats up so be happy and support our team and the man who brought it here.
What would make a GREAT t-shirt is to have a silhouette of both NC and SC with a Panther logo smack in the center (where Charlotte is) showing that the Panther logo is really a silhouette of the Carolinas.
Like I said in an Observer letter to the editor almopst 20 years ago, the team should have been named "Charlotte"...not Carolina.
Actually, that shirt would be pretty dope if they put both states on it, "NC" and "SC" on each state respectively, and then put the Panthers logo where Charlotte is. I could dig that.
The designer of this T-shirt must be a public school graduate. I am sure his/her junior high Geography is very proud.
I'm kind of shocked that no one has commented about how sad and embarrassing this actually is. OK. Maybe I'm not so shocked.
atI think it's pretty funny that any of you are under the impression that people outside of either Carolina could actually locate your cities on a map!
let me know where I can purchase,on the black market,said shirt,could become collector's item!
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