Wearing Team Gear As a Form of Expression

[johnnysama]

I don't know where to put this, but since it involves athletic gear to an extent, I think I will put it here.

I am a drama student, in addition to being a sports fan. I have a good-sized cap collection, most them are MLB gamers. Each day, I decide to come to class wearing a different one each day. My drama teacher says, in regard to that, I am expressing myself in a nice way about sports in general.

Now, this is supposed to be a deep topic, people. No smart-alceky responses here. What do you guys think of all this?

[Gothamite]

She's right - every time you get dressed you're making character choices.

And sports are a good cultural shorthand - you can express local pride (or, by repping the local rivals, a contrarian nature). You can stand out, or hide in plain sight based on the gear you choose.

[BigDmo]

Yeah, you can always tell which students are from the Bay Area here on the U of O campus because they all rock Giants gear (hats, shirts, etc.).

Whenever I travel I'll always pack 1 or 2 Oregon Duck things so I can express my fanhood in other places and maybe stir up some conversation with fans of other teams.

But I also wear a majority of Duck stuff all the time when I am in Eugene because I love to, simple as that.

[Pizzaman7294]

i definetly wear my sox and hawks stuff when i travel and I love wearing my vikings favre jersey in Wisconsin

[Legend]

I think the whole "repping your area" thing has blow out of proportion.

I live in FL now and wear my Yankees hats and have morons telling me to go back to NY. I left for a reason, I don't like living there. I'm not "repping" my city. I'm wearing the hat because I like the baseball team. Sometimes it leads to discussions with people who are from there too, and we talk and that's cool.

I have tons of hats, mostly NY teams, but some Bucs and Lightning hats too, as well as some USF hats. With USF it's different, as my school and my team I can wear that and people might guess I went there. But then you have the tons of Gators fans who never stepped foot on the campus and don't live in the state.

I think it all depends on the person I guess is what I'm trying to say. There are people who wear hats just because they match, and it has nothing to do with the team. But then there's people like me who wear the team I like gear regardless of where I am because I like the team.

It's become even more convoluted too, because you could say, he's wearing a sports team hat he must be a fan. There are plenty of people I think that, and turns out the hat matches, as I mentioned before, or it's just a style thing.

[HedleyLamarr]

Whenever I drive down to Florida, it is a must for me to wear University of Georgia attire.

[Legend]

Whenever I drive down to Florida, it is a must for me to wear University of Georgia attire.

And I for one thank you for that.

Come to think of it, during this discussion and what you said, I did end up buying a UGA shirt from a Wal-Mart last time I was in Athens. The shirt I was wearing home got ruined. So I bought a new shirt, picked a UGA one to make my Gator friends happy lol.

[The Mojo Maniac]

I attend university in Idaho and just had to pick up some blue and orange Boise State gear and become a Bronco fan. I don't care if that makes me a bandwagon fan, but I have really embraced the region as a secondary home. Plus my own school doesn't have a football team, so I had to adopt one.

To me, it's more of a matter of embracing the surrounding region rather than jumping on a bandwagon.

[Saint Zephyr III]

I think for certain teams it's more so about the "brand" rather than the region. For a team like the Dallas Cowboys or the New York Yankees you're wearing the brand.

Although living in Texas and being a Saints fan, I've had particular joy wearing Saints gear after a Cowboys loss.

[kevinmets]

As a Mets fan, I wear my classic blue & orange cap all the time.

However, I am also a fan of all things retro (particularly 70s-mid 90s), so I have a pretty decent sized collection of defunct MLB caps including the BiG Brewers, pinwheel Expos, kelly green A's, teal Mariners, and the white-front-panel Blue Jays & Orioles (both of which I owned well before their recent comebacks). My dad gets mad at me when I wear a non-Mets hat (especially if I accidentally wear the team the Mets happen to be playing).

[evanmaldonado]

Well in terms of hats, I usually wear whatever matches to showcase my collection. I just wear them because I enjoy the various colors in professional sports (particularly the MLB)

[hockey week]

I wear jerseys all the time, and as an historian I like the stories associated with each of them. It's nice to have some historical tidbit about the jersey I'm wearing, but I love every time someone has a memory tied to the team that wore it. People have these sports memories they treasure, a game or goal they saw on tv or if they were lucky, going to the games...and getting people to think about that history is great for someone in my field.

[phutmasterflex]

I am like you. I own about 50 MLB caps from different teams and different eras. Not only does each serve a purpose in matching outfits, but it also has a story. Each cap represents something about me. Whether it's my taste in design, the matching outfit or my favorite team, I buy each cap because each one has a meaning to me.

[BlueSky]

She's right - every time you get dressed you're making character choices.

And sports are a good cultural shorthand - you can express local pride (or, by repping the local rivals, a contrarian nature). You can stand out, or hide in plain sight based on the gear you choose.

I'm shocked and appalled that a progressive individual like yourself would assume the teacher is a female.

I wear jerseys all the time, and as an historian I like the stories associated with each of them. It's nice to have some historical tidbit about the jersey I'm wearing, but I love every time someone has a memory tied to the team that wore it. People have these sports memories they treasure, a game or goal they saw on tv or if they were lucky, going to the games...and getting people to think about that history is great for someone in my field.

Nice post. Speaks well to the topic and it's just cool. If I ever build any of the model planes I've bought through the years (used to be into it), I plan to make a little sign explaining the plane's place in history that will sit next to the model.

For example, for an A-10 Warthog from the Gulf War, I might have something like this: When the American Volunteer Group's legendary "Flying Tigers" became part of the USAAF in 1942, they were designated the 23rd Fighter Group. Now called the 23rd Tactical Fighter Wing, the group's proud heritage continued in the First Gulf War as the squadron's famous shark mouths returned to battle.

For aviation-minded trivia buffs, each A-10 must "earn" its shark mouth by flying a number of missions.

Personally, I only wear team gear for the traditional reason (I like & support the team) and not as any kind of self-expression. With that said, I enjoy wearing my Saints stuff around Atlanta and especially to Falcons-Saints games. You get a lot of crap of course, but 99% of it is good-natured. Wore it too when I saw Saints-Packers at Lambeau during the '04 preseason. That was fun and the Packer fans couldn't have been more gracious. Even when I asked, "So who are the Saints playing tonight?"

[Gothamite]

She's right - every time you get dressed you're making character choices.

And sports are a good cultural shorthand - you can express local pride (or, by repping the local rivals, a contrarian nature). You can stand out, or hide in plain sight based on the gear you choose.

I'm shocked and appalled that a progressive individual like yourself would assume the teacher is a female.

No assumptions intended - I usually default to feminine pronouns when the subject's gender has not been indicated. Although FWIW, I've taken about a dozen acting classes, and through some statistical quirk every last one of my teachers has been male. Go figure.

I think the responses to this thread prove my point - look at all the character choices being made. Self-expression drives so much of it. Even "I just like the team" Is self-expression, since you're choosing to make a visual connection in the minds of others with the team you support.

Good thread, thanks.

[tBBP]

I have a little bit of a different spin on this.

Of course, naturally I have my Buccaneers and Florida State paraphernalia with me at all times...but since I've been out and about, I've collected hats and t-shirts from all over the place. More often than not, though, I find myself collecting from places I know I'll probably never see again or that most folks probably have never seen (i.e. my North Dakota Fighting Sioux cap I picked up from when I was up in West Fargo), and since I used to live in Iowa for a short while, I do have some Hawkeyes and Cyclones stuff now, and I did pick up some Okie State stuff while in Oklahoma (orange is my favorite color after all)...but more often than not, I collect from the places that my closest comrades come from (example: my Missouri Tigers cap and t-shirt, not to mention my Tamba Hali KC Chiefs jersey, a/ because I've always liked the Chefs, and b/ because my homegirl's a native of Kansas City). Same with my Argentina national team stuff...I've always been a fan of the team, but in an odd coincidence, two years ago I ended up meeting and halfway-dating a girl from Argentina, which actually persuaded me to collect more Argentina stuff.

In a weird kinda way, its my way of "reppin'" my people, if that makes any kind of sense.

[matthew823]

For the most part, the only sports-related clothes I wear are of teams that I have some kind of fan relationship with. I grew up in denver and am a fan of all the Denver professional teams, so even living in Phoenix my loyalty is still to the Rockies, Broncos, Avalanche, and Nuggets--so i wear jerseys, shirts, and caps for those teams sometimes. I went to the University of Arizona so most of my collegiate gear is UofA.

The exceptions are a few and vary. I have some college shirts that are more about the college than any sports team--ie, when I visted a friend who went to Cornell I got a Cornell shirt. I have some University of Nebraska items because most of my Dad's family went there and I was a fan growing up and still am most of the time. Ditto University of Colorado, AFA, CSU, and the Denver U for hockey.

The one item I have that doesn't relate to fandom in some way is a shirt with the old Warriors "The City" logo on it. I don't even remotely care about the Warriors, but I think it's the greatest logo in sports history and I love the SF bay area. Moreover, to most people it's a shirt with a stylized Golden Gate Bridge on it and the words "the City." I've never had anyone ask me about the Warriors while wearing it.

[BlueSky]

It occurred to me that I have a few exceptions too. While vacationing in New Zealand, I picked up an All Blacks ballcap, which I wore a few times before retiring it due to the odd looks it got around Atlanta. Seriously. More fans of the Civil War here than rugby I guess.

I also had a Carolina Mudcats hat some years back because I liked their logo.

[Squeezee12]

I live near Sacramento Ca. I have never attended the Universoty of Oregon but by how much I wear my Ducks gear everyone might think I have. My only connection to there is that I went to the University for 4 years in high school for football camp. (I played on the same team as Mike Belotti's nephews in high school) I fell in love with the campus and the fans and the football team. I got to meet a lot of the coaches most are still there. I have never been able to watch a game at Autzen tho I hoping next year. But I go to every game in the bay area and some times I'll travel to the LA schools to watch. I love the Duck fans. They're awesome. It's like they take over when Oregon comes to town.

Anyways I wear my gear a lot and it's to express my support for the team. It's also cool to be walking around town here and someone shouts out GO DUCKS!!! My fiancé has also embraced it and has started ordering Duck gear. I even got to pick our wedding color. Of course I picked Hunter Green!!!! I LOVE MY DUCKS!!!

[tBBP]

At least you chose an actual school color, rather than black, steel, carbon, antracite, or Lord help you...volt.