The Redbox Bowl found itself taking a lot of fire Tuesday thanks to some very curious merchandise decisions. The bowl, which was played at the San Francisco Giants’ stadium in San Francisco from 2002-13 (with various title sponsors) and then moved to the San Francisco 49ers’ stadium in Santa Clara in 2014 (where it was initially the Foster Farms Bowl; it’s been the Redbox Bowl since 2018), features the Cal Bears and the Illnois Fighting Illini in this year’s installment (to be played on Dec. 30). And it put out some remarkably bad official t-shirts on that front, with those referring to Cal as “Cal State”:
.@RedboxBowl @CalAthletics Who/what the hell is "Cal State"? Do better. pic.twitter.com/oq35yveIG2
— For The Bay (@GoBearrs) December 10, 2019
That even received a rebuke from Cal’s creative director/brand manager:
https://twitter.com/jlemein/status/1204454484769832961
And this led to a lot of wisecracks about it:
Really glad #Cal is going bowling but goodness, the #RedboxBowl has to get the school name right. "Cal State?" Uh, no.🤦♂️ #GoBears pic.twitter.com/X8xeJ4XpBk
— Mike Rice (@MikeRice139) December 10, 2019
https://twitter.com/PiotrLe/status/1204247418805641216
It was always Cal State. Some of you just weren't paying attention. pic.twitter.com/jzpmaWqWML
— Mighty Golden Bears 🇺🇦 🇺🇲 (@cal_alumna) December 10, 2019
Meanwhile, this design also got criticism for using an old Illini helmet:
The Illinois helmet is also wrong. The current orange helmet has a blue I. This is several years old.
— Mike Rohan (@MikePRohan) December 10, 2019
And for featuring a whole lot of things that are nowhere near Santa Clara (although every NFL broadcast about the 49ers also does this):
Here's a handy map of the 7 tourist destinations depicted on the official RedBox Bowl t-shirt, all right next door to Levi's Stadium. pic.twitter.com/CGClM1J3lQ
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) December 10, 2019
So that’s just a big old swing and a miss by the Redbox Bowl. Congratulations on getting so many things so very wrong on an official t-shirt.
