OUR VIEW: Bookstore dropped the ball with no championship T-shirts

If there is one outlet for prospective consumers of Utah State Aggies apparel, shoppers should have to look no farther than campus’ very own USU Bookstore. The bookstore has an instant advantage over other local retailers for Aggie apparel, given its geographical convenience for students and the direct link to the university. The USU Bookstore is, by default, the first, and probably last place, any student on campus will look to shop for USU apparel.
    Considering these factors it would seem safe to assume that following the March 6 home basketball game in which USU students flooded the basketball court for the men’s basketball team’s third consecutive Western Athletic Conference championship, a title which the Aggies had actually clinched two days prior, one would think that the hottest-selling item on campus come Monday morning would be the same shirts and hats passed out to team members during the post-game celebration. Still though, even weeks later, such T-shirts are not to be found at the first place that should have had them. The only USU students who can be seen wearing the memory of the 2009-2010 basketball season’s accomplishments with pride are the members of the basketball team.
    While the bookstore has indeed made efforts at designing and selling unique T-shirts to build up to rivalry games and to advertise the USU student section as the force that it is, the efforts could be described, at best, as being misguided.
    The lack of championship and commemorative T-shirts for USU’s athletic accomplishments is just one of two issues the bookstore seems to have; the other of which is the non-existent replica jerseys that even come close to resembling what the USU football and basketball teams wear. During the 2008-2009 basketball season, an explosion of sales hit the bookstore when its supply of blue Utah State basketball jerseys were marked down to a reasonable price for students. The design on front was one the Aggies have not worn since the 2005-2006 season, but it was a design that was unique to Utah State and the jerseys were impossible to miss on cold winter nights at the Spectrum.
    This school year, such jerseys have been nowhere to be found on the bookstore clothing racks. Instead, the only jerseys for sale are cheap-looking white jerseys made by a different apparel company than that which is USU’s primary sponsor. Not only that, but the standard among USU students is to wear the Aggies’ shade of blue to home games rather than white. Safe to say, very few of the white jerseys seem to have made their way off the bookstore clothing racks, nor does that appear to be changing any time soon.
    Much of the same can be said about football jerseys, too. Last fall the Aggies unveiled their new road uniforms to much approval from fans of the design. This coming fall, the football team will be wearing home jerseys that will share the same design as last year’s road uniforms, just with the colors reversed. At the end of the day though, Utah State fans will not be able to wear what the Aggies wear unless the USU Bookstore gets on top of its game to order a batch of replica uniforms for both football and basketball seasons.
    In a nutshell, Utah State fans, much like any fan base, want to sport the same gear that the teams wear during the season and have a T-shirt to celebrate a championship when it’s all over. For the 2009-2010 school year, that has not been an option available to Aggie students and fans.