Two years ago, Patriots fans were expecting to win Super Bowl XLII against the underdog New York Giants who squeaked into the Superbowl from the wilcard NFC spot. T-shirts, hats, and frisbees celebrating the Patriots' perfect season were printed and ready to be distributed to the New England fans who were certain that things would go their way. But things didn't go their way, and mountains of clothing were not sent out for delivery.
Thousands of articles of clothing are made for teams that end up losing, sometimes well over 10,000 shirts will be printed never to be purchased by anyone. What happens to them? The answer to this question comes to us from the smart folks at Mental_Floss, who report that the unclaimed merchandise is used for humanitarian purposes by the international outreach group World Vision.
The international Christian humanitarian aid group works with Major League Baseball, the NFL, and the NBA to collect misprinted merchandise and distribute it to people living in impoverished nations.(MLB used to require the destruction of shirts and hats proclaiming the wrong champions, but two years ago they began donating their postseason apparel).
I couldn't have asked for a better answer. The poor and needy are fitted with high-quality clothes, the companies that made the clothes get a tax write-off, and I don't have to see those Patriots shirts unless I visit a third-world country.
