Hey Everyone

[DestinCajun]

LOL!! Don't be sorry, its our marketing dept that should be sorry!
Z _

We have a "marketing department"?

[AstroCajun]

_ It's not his fault, blame the pepper inventors and JSD. She's the one who allows for ____ like this to happen. _

UGH! I don't even think Ronald McDonald would wear something that looks like that!!!!

[Trojan Delta Chi]

hahaha, I know I'm going to make some of you mad, but I like the chili pepper logo. It's a bit cartoonish, but it's still cool. If I can, I'll probably try and get ahold of a tshirt or something with that logo on it. The Cajuns are my second favorite Sun Belt team, so I think wearing the RED and WHITE would be ok, right?

[Cajunbander]

It's not his fault, blame the pepper inventors and JSD. She's the one who allows for ____ like this to happen.

That picture was probably from an Academy. We had those God-awful hoodies last year, and we couldn't give them away, thank goodness. The problem is, the university might only send like a copy of the pepper logo. The company that makes the hoodies, a company that has probably never heard of UL, has to guess at what the school colors are.

[CajunAmos]

I did indeed take it at Academy. To the positive side, it looks like the online store actually has added some shirts/jackets to the website. I've attached the Official Online Store Mens Apparel pdf for those interested.

UL Mens Apparel

[Trojan Delta Chi]

do you guys make up weekly "game day" shirts for football? if so, i'd like to get one. troy has them every game, and i can't wait to see what the troy v. uL one looks like this year, i'm sure it will be hilarious. i'm going to be collecting game day shirts from all the sun belt schools over the next few seasons. of course, i'll want shirts that have nothing to do with troy, but i am proud of each of our member schools and it'll be cool to be able to flash the logos around to both help people recognize sun belt teams AND get a laugh at the humorous cartoons on the backs of them.

if you guys DO have these shirts, and someone would be willing to bring me one when they come up to troy for the game, i would graciously cover the cost plus maybe a little extra for the trouble. FYI: i wear a medium.

[RaginFan2]

do you guys make up weekly "game day" shirts for football? if so, i'd like to get one. troy has them every game, and i can't wait to see what the troy v. uL one looks like this year, i'm sure it will be hilarious. i'm going to be collecting game day shirts from all the sun belt schools over the next few seasons. of course, i'll want shirts that have nothing to do with troy, but i am proud of each of our member schools and it'll be cool to be able to flash the logos around to both help people recognize sun belt teams AND get a laugh at the humorous cartoons on the backs of them.

if you guys DO have these shirts, and someone would be willing to bring me one when they come up to troy for the game, i would graciously cover the cost plus maybe a little extra for the trouble. FYI: i wear a medium.

Do you have a sample of the Troy shirts you could post to show us? I am not aware that we do anything like that. We have had a few specific games where this has happened, but not on a regular basis.

[Trojan Delta Chi]

well since it is a game day thing, i can't find any online for sale. bascially it's a tshirt with the troy logo on the front left pocket. on the back is a cartoon drawn up by the local artist where a "mighty" trojan warrior (usualy friendly but powerful looking) is somehow beating up on the opossing mascot (always undersized and helpless looking). I'm currently wearing the game shirt from the Middle game last season. It has Hector slapping his hands together to clean them off because he has just hog-tied Lightning in the middle of MGVS. Lighting looks all scared and shocked. The shirt says, "Tied Down in T-Town."

The bottom of the back of the shirt gives the game day specifics such as who played, where it was played, and the date.

Game Day shirts are great. They give the fans something to buy that day to help them remember the event, plus they're funny and everyone loves them. I really think whoever handles the UL merch should start doing them for yall. There is nothing quite as cool as having the game day shirt from a great game, especially if it is old. It has a very unique novelty quality once the game is over. Troy usually sells out, and if not, they sell the extras for like a week then never again. Makes for great collectables.

Be sure to pick one up from us if you come up to Troy for the game this year. It will be making fun of your team, but it'll still be a great collectable. If yall win, it's a MUST to have the shirt, haha.

[CajunNation]

For those of you just realizing the garbage we are selling right now and how screwed up our school colors are, WELCOME.

Spread the word. We need as many people talking about this as we can if we are to have any chane of returning to our REAL school colors, Vermilion Red and Evangeline White.

[Just1More]

_ well since it is a game day thing, i can't find any online for sale. bascially it's a tshirt with the troy logo on the front left pocket. on the back is a cartoon drawn up by the local artist where a "mighty" trojan warrior (usualy friendly but powerful looking) is somehow beating up on the opossing mascot (always undersized and helpless looking). I'm currently wearing the game shirt from the Middle game last season. It has Hector slapping his hands together to clean them off because he has just hog-tied Lightning in the middle of MGVS. Lighting looks all scared and shocked. The shirt says, "Tied Down in T-Town."

The bottom of the back of the shirt gives the game day specifics such as who played, where it was played, and the date.

Game Day shirts are great. They give the fans something to buy that day to help them remember the event, plus they're funny and everyone loves them. I really think whoever handles the UL merch should start doing them for yall. There is nothing quite as cool as having the game day shirt from a great game, especially if it is old. It has a very unique novelty quality once the game is over. Troy usually sells out, and if not, they sell the extras for like a week then never again. Makes for great collectables.

Be sure to pick one up from us if you come up to Troy for the game this year. It will be making fun of your team, but it'll still be a great collectable. If yall win, it's a MUST to have the shirt, haha. _

I guess we could show a Trojan "warrior" wincing in agony as he consumes a mouthful of cayenne peppers. Or, we could have a big cayenne pepper holding a shield resembling our hot wheel logo, in a battle stance against a shrimpy little Trojan, squirting some tail juice into the mighty midget Trojan warrior's eyes (I'd be real cautious with the artwork... wouldn't want to mislead anyone).

How about we go the cheap and classless route and just staple a condom on a t-shirt and use the old unsophisticated line (written in vermillion of course) "No one likes a used Trojan!". We could have a big hairy guy's butt painted on the back of that t-shirt with a sign over the top that says "Trojan Nightclub". OK... maybe not. But, there could be worse concepts using a "Trojan" and a "flaming" pepper.

If we would have opted for the red bullgator instead of a "flaming pepper"... I would have a "Trojan Horse" 2/3 buried in a swamp, with a bunch of scared Trojans busting out of it, swimming (drowning) and panicking in the presence of a crew of red bullgators.

Oh, and before some knucklehead says it... I'm just amusing myself... I am 100% about winning the game.

[rhineaux]

_ haha, it took less than 20 minutes for rhineaux to put that picture up. I wonder if he has a problem with the UL merch dept (read: JSD). I agree though, our colors are red and white, it is a classic look that never goes wrong. _

When Amos first posted that picture, it ____ed me off so I sent JSD an e-mail asking her to give me some sort of explanation for it. I'll post the conversation below.

Me:
I understand that you are in charge of Ragin Cajun licensing and marketing, etc.

Regarding the attached picture, I have two questions…

1. Since when are our official colors red and yellow? I thought they were vermilion and white?

2. As a person who has multiple degrees from UL and who is a season ticket holder for multiple sports…Why is this one of my few options of UL apparel?

***

JSD:
Thanks for writing and for your support of your alma mater and Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns.

In regards to your questions, our colors are vermilion (red) and white, with black as a secondary trim color.

Manufacturers produce products both the official colors of universities and in what they call "fashion lines" which incorporate what they consider to be the latest fashion colors that will appeal to certain buyers. These fashion colorsare popular. When the university is purchasing apparel (uniforms, giveaways, departmental shirts, etc), , however, we stick with the official university colors of red, white, and black.

As for this product being one of your few options, I invite you to visit a variety of the local retailers who carry our merchandise. There are about 20 retailers right here in Lafayette and some of them carry a wide variety of apparel options (particularly the sporting goods stores, University Bookstore, and Follett's).

Here's a link to the list of retailers for your reference:

http://www.louisiana.edu/Advancement...etailers.shtml

Hope this information is helpful. Again, thanks Chris, for being a supporter.

Julie Dronet

***

Me:
Thank you for your response. But please allow me to be frank, and kinda vent a little bit…

The reason I said that there are only a few options out there is more of a personal issue than an issue with how many stores carry UL stuff. I will not purchase anything with a pepper on it. I will not purchase anything, such as this sweater, that has yellow and orange colors on it. I will not purchase anything that has any sort of symbol that is on fire, etc. Honestly, I’m embarrassed to be seen in any of that, partly because it doesn’t look good, and partly because if I don’t respect the way it looks (as a supporter and major fan of the school), then how could others respect the way it looks. I’m not sure whose idea it was to begin incorporating all of the peppers and flames onto all our stuff, but it was not a good idea. There may have been some novelty associated with it in the beginning, but that has long since worn off.

I’m not sure if you noticed, but there were a large number of those sweaters on that rack, and every time I go into the Lafayette Academy, there are always a large number of items on all of the racks, mainly because this stuff is hideous. Granted, there are some fans out there that will purchase some of these things, if for no other reason than to do the school a favor. But, go to a baseball game this weekend and see how many people are wearing those sweaters, or something of a similar design. I can’t honestly think of ever seeing anyone at any game that is ever wearing anything that is yellow, which tells me that true fans don’t like it and are not buying it. If most UL fans and supporters decline to buy things with flaming logo’s and peppers on it, then how can we expect non-supporters to want to buy it?

I don’t mean to be critical of you, I’m just trying to vent a little bit and let my opinions be known. I’ve certainly learned that if you don’t like something, then you cannot be upset when it doesn’t change. I just seriously hope, as we have a new regime coming in to move our school forward, that the university takes a long, hard look at what is being sold with our name on it, how we market ourselves, how we portray ourselves, etc. I am of the opinion that it would benefit us greatly to change all of our logos, fonts, etc to something that’s a lot less cartoonish and minor league, and a lot more classy and respectable. We are fortunate to have a wonderful logo like the Fleur de Lis seen at the top of the page you linked. And we are also fortunate to have a great color scheme to work with, that’s fairly unique. I think that if we come up with something that better portrays UL as a legitimate university and not a junior college or a middle school, if we market that brand properly, and if we disallow manufacturers to make a mockery of our brand, then it would be more than worth the time and effort. While I have very limited knowledge of how these licensing and marketing agreements work, I feel that if we limited our colors to Vermilion and White (and black), instead of having all of those yellow and orange flames and peppers, and had that really nice Fleur de Lis with just ‘UL’ or ‘Louisiana’ or ‘Ragin Cajuns’ in a better font, associated with the shirt, then there would be a pretty good chance that this sweater would have been red and white (or red and black), would look a lot better, and would certainly be something that I would buy for myself or as a gift.

Again, thank you for your response and thank you for your time.

***

I did not recieve another response from her...I think I might have upset her. Oops. Hopefully, her and the rest of those responsible for this and other travesties at our school, will get their heads out of their collective asses and get their acts together. If not, then they should be fired, or moved to a janitorial position in the Physical Plant.

[Hammer58]

A couple of points about the issues your correspondence raised:

I don't know if the pepper is going away but I think the multicolored flames may be going by the wayside. Scott Farmer metnioned the need to come up with a simpler design that uses less colors. He stated that all of the multicolors of the flames (and that includes the yellow) makes our logos too complicated and expensive to produce. However, I have no idea what simpler logo he has in mind.

As for JSD assertion that vendors produce items in both the school colors and in other colors that market to a specific segment of the population or consumers, that is true as you see pro gear in all sorts of colors for sale to fans. It is especially true of baksetball gear and the fan gear of teams in large markets. Much of this is aimed at the "hip-hop" market. However, that is not the case with this yellow and red crap that Academy has. JSD should know that. It is just Academy screwing up and refusing to listen to the customer when they have complained.