Preseason Purchase Power.

Today, I embarked on one of my favorite yearly rituals. Ten days before the first Colts preseason game, I shop for my new Colts apparel for the upcoming season. Ten days leaves plenty of time for the new items to be produced, but still falls in the shipping window, ensuring my purchases are here by game day.



Football Fanatics has always been one of my favorite websites for shopping for Colts gear. They have the best selection and best prices, and their warehouse is in Jacksonville (!), so I get the merchandise quickly. This year, however, there was next to no new merchandise, and all of the women's stuff was covered in glitter (ok for bar tops, not ok for football Sundays), so I was forced to explore a lot of other sites.


Thanks to a LOT of DLO reunions and trips to Indy last year, I felt like I was in pretty good shape going into the online shopping sesh. I did know I had retired a few tanks and hoodies (they were threadbare), but I also remembered a lot of RCA Dome and Indy Airport purchasing. Being in Indianapolis is always insane for me, because I see blue, white, and horseshoes EVERYWHERE, a welcome change from teal, black, and jaguar spots. *shudder* I always warn Em and Linds that there will be a *lot* of purchasing when I visit, and they always understand (God help them for not calling some sort of MasterCard Anonymous HelpLine). Before I started filling my virtual shopping cart, I decided to take a quick inventory of what I already owned. I never dreamed I would fill up the ENTIRE sheet of paper:


Jerseys: 4. Manning in white and blue, Gonzalez in blue, Harrison (authentic!) in white. Am holding off for now, but leaning toward Clark in white for a later purchase.


Long sleeve tees: 3. 1 kid size blue with hood, black stripe and helmet logo. 1 ladies light blue, also with hood, and glitter chest logo with flowers. 1 ladies "tissue tee" (grey heather layered over white) with blue Colts logo.


Short sleeve tees: 4. 3 boys size, 1 blue "property of", 1 white with horseshoe, 1 grey with helmet logo. 1 ladies (the new love, not yet worn), lightweight grey with old logo -- kicking colt inside a football.


Hoodies: 2. 1 huge blue with huge white horseshoe. 1 blue zip-front w/ Super Bowl Champs embroidered chest patch.


Hats: 3. 2 pink, one horseshoe, one SB champs. 1 blue with "87" on front and "Wayne" on back.



I won't go into home decor.


Wow, I don't need anything.


Except maybe a few tanks and a tee or 2 to freshen things up.

I ended up with the tank pictured above (good for layering), the tee pictured here (new! love!), and the white coaches' flexfit hat (also great). I'm still toying with the new jersey purchase for the season... I am leaning towards Clark and the 44, but I already have two double digits (88 and 11), so I'm not sure.

Either way, GO HORSE!