{image1}If officials at Marquette University are going to play the name game, so are the sass-a-craft minds of Milwaukee's Smac Design.
The design company, most recognized here for its non-regionally specific "Too Much Metal for One Hand" campaign, is finally hitting home with their newest T-shirt.
The Milwaukee based design company's suggestion to Marquette's on-going mascot issue comes in the form of a navy T-shirt with the phrase "Gold Diggers, Est. 2005" above a picture of a shimmering bar of gold. The T-shirt allows wearers to boast their opinion and their fashion sense in one article of clothing.
There is a lesson to be learned here. "You just can't do a mascot out of gold anything, period," says business owner Fred Gillich, who actually attended Marquette for one year. "It's silly. It leaves itself wide open for mockery."
Sure, it may not be the most important issue facing the city right now, but it is unquestionably something that people care about. "We were getting the feeling that everyone hated it, and we were right," he says.
Gillich and his crew saw the name debate as a perfect opportunity to touch on a local issue, which, because they advertise nationally, is something new for them. "Even though we're based in Milwaukee, our best market is California," says Gillich. "College towns like Austin, TX are big on us, too."
In an attempt to get their hometown excited about their product, Smac Design is offering same day delivery to all City of Milwaukee customers. The fresh delivery comes not only free of charge, but also creatively packaged in a "Too Much Metal" pizza box to your door.
Will sporting a "Gold Diggers" shirt solve the problem? No, but for Smac Designers, it may just boil down to this: If you can't beat 'em, make fun of 'em.
The T-shirts are available for $18 at toomuchmetal.com.
OnMilwaukee.com staff writer Julie Lawrence grew up in Wauwatosa and has lived her whole life in the Milwaukee area.
As any “word nerd” can attest, you never know when inspiration will strike, so from a very early age Julie has rarely been seen sans pen and little notebook. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee it seemed only natural that she major in journalism. When OnMilwaukee.com offered her an avenue to combine her writing and the city she knows and loves in late 2004, she knew it was meant to be. Around the office, she answers to a plethora of nicknames, including “Lar,” (short for “Larry,” which is short for “Lawrence”) as well as the mysteriously-sourced “Bill Murray.”
