A lot of athletes and sports fans are superstitious about their clothes. If they were wearing a certain pair of socks when their team won a championship, they might make sure to wear those socks for every game.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen rolled up to his game last week in a hoodie from his old high school, before laying a 40-0 smackdown on the Houston Texans—a franchise-worst defeat.
Josh Allen wearing a Firebaugh Eagles hoodie pic.twitter.com/uAUAmHNHMM
— Matthew Bové (@Matt_Bove) October 3, 2021
Naturally, Bills fans have made a connection between that sweet victory and Allen’s Firebaugh High School sweatshirt, and started hounding the small school about buying a version of their own.
We appreciate all the love from Bills Mafia! This is an original sweatshirt we no longer make. But, when we open our online team store with current gear in a week or two we will tweet the link 🤗 https://t.co/NgnDkwejpV
— Firebaugh Eagles Athletics (@FHSeaglesports) October 3, 2021
Unfortunately, Allen’s version is outdated (considering he graduated in 2014), but Firebaugh and Allen promised that they’d update the team store with a new one.
😁 Please wait for this link 👍🏼 https://t.co/8NJTigELm1
— Josh Allen (@JoshAllenQB) October 4, 2021
For a school like Firebaugh, which has a little more than 600 students and is situated in a rural town of about 8,000 people, this time in the spotlight is new. They’re surely proud of one of their own making it this far to the NFL, but they probably didn’t plan for Allen’s new neighbors in Buffalo to come looking for relics from his past.
The smartest thing is to react to the hype by trying to meet demand, even if it is only temporary. And that’s exactly what Firebaugh is doing. It might not have this army of devoted Allen fans clamoring for apparel forever, so it’s wise to capitalize on it now.
That’s what the team did, launching a limited-time pre-sale for the hoodie:
Firebaugh and Josh Allen fans… 2pm pacific/ 5pm eastern is the last chance to get your hoodie! Here is the link:https://t.co/y09jtLh7V2
— Firebaugh Eagles Athletics (@FHSeaglesports) October 11, 2021
The original tweet from Firebaugh announcing the hoodie got 2,000 likes and 450 retweets. The Buffalo Bills also tweeted a link to the pre-sale, adding another 3,000 likes and 500 retweets. If even a small percentage of that social activity translated to hoodie sales, that’s a pretty big win for a small high school.
