Redesigned and released at the Super Bowl

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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2004-02-04

Redesigned and released at the Super Bowl
New and exciting long-awaited product makes its debut at the Super Bowl, in front of millions of screaming fans

By Brad Mangin, SportsShooter.com

Photo by Michael Zagaris

Max Morse, left, and Peter Read Miller tested out the new SportsShooter garment-washed baseball caps made by Twins Enterprise at Super Bowl XXXVIII on February 1, 2004 in Houston.

The buzz started at 8:26pm EST on February 1, 2004, Super Bowl Sunday. The second quarter of Super Bowl XXXVIII had just ended and millions of fans around the world were getting ready to witness history between Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake.

However, any sports photographer who was "in the know" knew that there was something special at this game. Something big. Something redesigned and something vastly improved in style and function. Something hidden away until this very day - with only some message board speculation on when it would arrive - and what the technical specs were "officially" going to be.

Forget burst rates, and frame buffers and megapixels for a moment. We're talking about the new SportsShooter baseball cap, folks.

When millions of fans saw Sports Illustrated staffer and SportsShooter.com member Peter Read Miller wearing one of these fancy new SportsShooter black baseball caps, they, well, uh, they didn't think anything about it at all.

But SportsShooter.com members noticed it. (And that's all that matters, right?)

The SportsShooter.com message board lit up immediately.

Thomas Oed from San Diego broke the news:

"So here I am, watching the Super Bowl on TV, and the first half just ended. They showed the Halftime Report, reviewed the first half, and in the last replay they showed before cutting away to the halftime entertainment, the camera panned across, and showed the back of a photographer's head in back of the end zone... Yep, you guessed it... he was wearing a Sportsshooter hat! Wonder whose head that was!"

Of course, leave it to a Brooks Institute student, Jon Austria, to have his mind in the gutter when he followed with this at 8:36 pm EST:

"well... i hope the SS.com member had a picture of janet (ms. jackson), naked at the end of that song!"

The excitement had begun. Boy did we look smart planting Peter and his trusty assistant Max Morse with the brand-new hats in the end zone near a CBS camera!

Next, Thomas Quinn from Valparaiso, IN came is with this at 8:38pm:

"Yes, Blurry but it was there. On a 56" Big Screen it was about 9 wide in the left had corner of the screen. Too Awsome."

Then there was Donald Meyerson from Waco, TX:

"I was able to make out the blurry SS hat as well. It came into view right after the David Givens TD, who I might add I played pee wee football with. Way to go DG, representn' Humble.

The new natural color garment-washed SportsShooter cap by Twins Enterprise is now avalable in Our Store for only $20 including TAX and shipping.

From there the thread took on a life of it's own as the focus shifted over to Janet Jackson... but let's get back to the REAL buzz that had just started!

You see, the folks here that run the ol' website have been planning some new SportsShooter.com merchandise for months. We knew we needed some new hats. Cool hats. Ones that fit your head (even my big-ass 7 3/4 size) with a nice curved bill. More than one color.

After seeking out the help of our good friend Rich Pilling from Major League Baseball (again) we were able to hook up with Patrick Smith at Twins Enterprise in Boston, seeking the ultimate ballcap for our members.

Twins Enterprise is an official MLB Licensee and they make the coolest adjustable caps that are sold each year at the World Series. I've bought them every year since 2000 and they look great, fit great and keep the sun out of my eyes when I shoot the Giants at Pacific Bell (I am not calling it SBC yet) Park.

I thought it would be cool if our members could get the same nicely shaped, garment washed caps that I buy every year at Yankee Stadium.

Thanks to Patrick and other fine folks at Twins we were able to crank out TWO different colors for everyone to buy in Our Store: black and natural (khaki). The best news might be that these new caps are being brought to you, the happy SportsShooter.com member for a CHEAPER price than the previous models!

That's right sports fans, these NEW caps can be yours for only $20 apiece with tax and shipping included (the old hats were $24).

Boy were we lucky that Peter and Max were forced by an NFL official to wear their hats backwards because they weren't wearing a Reebok hat. It seems that Reebok makes the official sideline hat for the NFL and the Super Bowl and the league did not want any other commercial logo seen on TV. Ha! They even made Michael Zagaris turn his cap around with a Negro League baseball club logo on the front. The joke ended up being on the NFL of course, as SportsShooter was given a wonderful free plug on their broadcast.

Considering that a 30 second commercial on CBS during the Super Bowl cost $2.25 million I figure that our 10 second freebie seen by 140 million people in the US saved us about $733,000.

The new black garment-washed SportsShooter cap by Twins Enterprise is now avalable in Our Store for only $20 including TAX and shipping.

After the Janet Jackson excitement settled down a little bit Joshua Corsa from Kill Devil Hills, NC came into the message boards and said this:

"Speaking of hats...Anyone have an idea when the new, cool, improved SS hats are going to hit the shelves?"

Dwain Scott from Oklahoma City, OK was next:

"Well back to the hat! I saw the shot of the hat and started screaming hey thats a SPORTS SHOOTER HAT COOL!!!!!! Everyone at the Super bowl party I was at thought I was nuts. Which isn't far from the truth since i was more excited about that than Janets Parts. I was trying to explain SS.com to a friend when the "equipment malfunction" happened on Jackson so i missed it. Great to see a bit of SS.com make it into the SuperBowl coverage."

On Tuesday a few of the regular Sports Shooter Newsletter contributing writers came into the boards to add their two cents. First was Mongo Johnson from Missoula, MT:

"Back to the damm hat already... If you looked close, it's one of 2 prototypes that were at the Super Bowl. It looks like it was on the fat head of Max the driver."

Then there was Scott Sommerdorf from San Francisco, CA:

"The new hat rocks. And it fits nicely too." Rumor has it that Scott was given a sneak preview of the new hat last week and has been test driving it for us.

So, now it's time to get caught up in all the excitement and be the first one on your block with one of our new hats.

You never know what we'll come up with next and you never know when the hats will run out. There will be a sad day very soon, probably a bright, sunshiny day in beautiful Santa Barbara, when store manager Joe Gosen will wander over to the Store and find that the baseball caps are all gone.

Gil Batzri already ordered his. Order yours today.

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Brad Mangin: brad@SportsShooter.com