Spring Training shopping: gearing up for the season
On Thursday, the Red Sox kicked off their Spring Training slate of games with a doubleheader against Northeastern University and Boston College. The afternoon of baseball is a sure sign that a new season is on its way, and what better way is there to usher in a new season than with new team apparel?
Whether you’re a Red Sox fan, Yankees fan or a fan of any other MLB team, there are plenty of options when it comes to fan apparel. One of the most intriguing options is a “design your own apparel” section of the MLB shop website. If you purchase any “design your own” piece between now and Feb. 28, MLB will also take $10 off your purchase.
The selection of clothing in the design your own apparel section is pretty limited: women and children can only pick t-shirts while men can pick either a t-shirt, long-sleeve shirt or sweatshirt.
Once in the design “studio”, you select the color and size of the shirt you want, and then you can place a limited selection of team logos on the chest, sleeve or back of the shirt. Each logo adds an additional $2 to the price of the shirt. For $14 more, you can customize the shirt with a personal name and number or you can choose from roster players’ names and numbers.
The custom-designed apparel is an exciting idea, but it would definitely be improved by more options. You cannot change the size of the logo on the shirt and can’t play with color at all. It would be fun to have stonewashed option or opacity meter to layer colors and logos and really get into the design. In the end, the shirts get pretty expensive for such a basic design.
Still, the “design your own apparel” section still represents a step toward more fan-controlled fashion. Hopefully in the future, MLB will add more design capabilities to the section.
What do you think of designing your own apparel? Would you spend the extra money to do it? How could it be improved? Let us know in the comments below.
