Wife’s Perspective On Sports: Real Fans Don’t Wear Pink Apparel

Oct 1, 2012; Arlington, TX, USA; A general interior view of the Victoria Secret new Pink store at Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

City of Champions co-editor Matt Gajtka welcomes his wife Jillian back for her regular “Wife’s Perspective” column. Check out her first entry.

Before I get further into this column, let me preface this by saying I am not a fan of the color pink. Besides one of my favorite pairs of pants, I think I have roughly two items in the rest of my closet that are pink.

Now, onto the column. Throughout my life I have always been a tomboy, playing sports alongside the boys growing up and never being a girly girl. It seems that about 15 years ago or so, teams started assuming that all sporting appeal for women and girls had to include pink: pink t-shirts, pink jerseys, you get the point.

Last I checked, the players on the field, the ice or the court weren’t wearing pink jerseys. I thought the point of getting behind your favorite team was to wear apparel and colors similar to them.

I understand that women don’t want to wear oversized men’s-cut apparel, but why can’t we simply wear replica jerseys in a women’s cut that are just that: replicas? No pink added or – heaven forbid – sparkles and glittery numbers. Although some jerseys come in female-fitting measurements, usually if I want to find a replica I have to search for the largest size in the youth section.

While pink apparel is a huge moneymaker for teams, they’re not picking up real fans. These fans are just jumping on the “I want to look cute while attending a game I know nothing about” bandwagon. For example, in football, pink-wearing women “fans” only need to commit to watching one game a week, so it’s easy to get dolled up once every seven days.

It’s a sporting event where you go to yell and cheer for your team, not try to get a date with a player. (Well, that could be another column.)

Just like when I was in high school and I’d wear the away jersey of a friend at our home games, let’s get back to supporting our sports teams with apparel in the teams’ colors, not pink with sparkles.

Jillian is a marketing director for a credit union. Her favorite teams are the Detroit Tigers and Michigan Wolverines, and she’s never worn anything pink to support them.