If there’s one thing sports fans get more upset about than bad officiating, it’s uniforms. Teams love to use uniforms to get as much attention for the team and their players as possible, whether its the design, color scheme or other tactics. At the University of Oregon and at Qwest Century Link field in Seattle, fans have expressed discontent over the introduction of day-glo uniforms (which are thankfully not part of the normal rotation). At the University of Washington, a new “blackout” uniform was designed to give the team an edgy feel, even though black is not a component of the school colors. And speaking of UW, fans were confused when previous coach Ty Willingham removed players’ names from the uniforms as a way to encourage a team, not individual, attitude, which went against decades of tradition at the school.
Now, according to Yahoo!, the Mexican football team Jaguares de Chiapas — yes, the other kind of football — is adding a 21st century spin to its uniforms by using players’ Twitter account names, along with their sponsor’s Twitter account, on their jerseys instead of their real names. Last month, the Spanish club of Valencia did something similar, using their players’ Twitter handles on the front of the shirts. Valencia did not use a sponsor, however.
This type of marketing stunt could produce some interesting results. One of the players, Jackson Martinez, joined Twitter only 10 days ago, yet already has over 500 followers — even with only two tweets. While not everyone can be Charlie Sheen and acquire millions of followers with no tweets, Martinez is not off to a bad start. The question is whether fans of Los Jaguares will respond to the new uniforms long-term, and not only follow the accounts of players and the sponsor but actually engage with them, thereby helping promote the team.
Do you like the idea of a Twitter handle being used in lieu of a player’s name on their uniform? Would you be more inclined to connect with them or the team on Twitter? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.