In 2013 Nike created a shirt for the Carolina Panthers, an NFL team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The black, short-sleeved shirt featured an NC and the team logo inside a state outline of Carolina. One problem: The outline was of South Carolina, not North Carolina.
The Panthers do represent both states. The team trains in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and played regular-season home games in Clemson, South Carolina, in its inaugural season (1995) before moving to Charlotte. The owner purposefully christened his team the Carolina Panthers (as opposed to the North Carolina Panthers or Charlotte Panthers) to appeal to people from both states and create a wider fan base. Still, Nike corrupted its slogan and just blew it. If you’re going to run one state’s outline on a Panthers shirt, it’s got to be the one referenced on the shirt — the one where the team literally plays. In other words, it states NC, so its state should be NC.
On the left sleeve is Nike’s familiar Swoosh, which resembles a check mark. An x would have been more appropriate, because the footwear and apparel giant got this one wrong. If Nike wants to make a shirt along these lines, how about one with an NY and a Giants (or Jets) logo in the state outline of New Jersey? That would, oddly enough, be accurate.
This isn’t the first time a problem has arisen involving the Carolinas, but it may be the first one that hit the shelves. Nike recalled the erroneous $32 T-shirt, but not before some were sold … and many were flipped on eBay for profits as large as a certain wild cat.
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