Cotton SWAG.
When I worked in the corporate world, I used to joke that “if my employer didn’t dress me, I wouldn’t have any clothes”. Such was the case with the plethora of promotional merchandise that would be given to all of us in marketing and management roles. And living in the hometown of the largest employer in my state, there was nothing weird about wearing “the colors” around town on the weekend. Lots of others were in the same boat, and thought nothing of it. Once I retired, the appearance of my closet transitioned to a normal mix of street clothing that was only branded on the tag inside the collar. But that only lasted until I got involved with PCA. Now, as a zone rep, I’ve got neat stuff from all the regions in the zone. And for whatever reason, I can’t resist checking that box in Motorsportregistration.com to buy that “Oktoberfestendlesssummerspringtrackday917concoursTSD” special edition T-shirt. Combine that collection with items acquired at Treffen, Parade and Rennsport Reunion, and the hat, shirt, jacket, and sticker collection are once again transitioning my closet to look just like it did during my working years. And since I worked for a company whose name was comprised of “initials”, the only difference today is that the new initials all have “PCA” in them.
However, unlike my working years, I don’t live in the hometown of a Porsche company (Atlanta or Stuttgart) or the PCA headquarters (Columbia, MD) where people on the street might understand my wardrobe. So wearing Porsche on my sleeve here in Utah (both literally and figuratively), would send the message to all my friends and neighbors that I’m nothing more than a car nerd. Though that assessment would be largely true, I choose not to initiate ANY conversations about my automotive passions when hanging out with non-PCA friends. The reason is a mix of not wanting to be seen as a one-dimensional person, and also choosing not to bore my friends. Nonetheless, there’s a strangely high level of curiosity among my non-PCA social circle, particularly related to track days, HPDE instruction, zone travels, and providing advice on how they might price and sell their Prius. The result is that THEY brand me as the car geek, and I don’t even have to wear the advertising. So unless I’m at a PCA event, the clothes remain in the closet, and my “car lips” remain sealed.
As a result of trying to maintain a low profile locally, I’ve got lots of really cool, one-time event celebration outerwear that may eventually head to charity. After all, there’s just not that much lawn to mow, oil to change, or old metal to polish, to enable me to wear out all of those perfectly functional T-shirts. But I’m still waiting for the first time that I’m going to see an IRPCA Amazing Rally T-shirt on a “traffic light entrepreneur” offering to clean my windshield before the light turns green.
I suspect that I’m not alone, as I write this confession!