META - MGoBlog rights a wrong, teams up with Hope for Pahokee Charity!

an attempt to steal food from poor people. But some comment from above--and attempt to address the issue--would be appreciated. 

I'm not sure how this is really ripping off Odom's charity.  The "Eatin" motion and talk was a pretty big theme for the team last year, and as you can tell by the multitude of shirts in the store pretty much every theme from last year has a shirt.  Would be cool for the Mgostore to give the proceeds to Odoms' charity but I don't see it as any ethical obligation.

And Butterfield, you don't have to be such a dick about it.

I actually didn't know about the Martavious Odoms Presents shirt until the other day when the thread Butterfield describes took place.  When I learned about Odoms' shirt and that the proceeds would be donated to Pahokee, I ordered one.  Just FWIW.

Dave Brandon wasn't the one who did it, therefore Brian can't muster any outrage.

I have to agree that it's wrong and secondly I don't even think its that cool of a shirt. The #EATING one by Hope for Pahokee is a better shirt in my opinion. So that's two things against it, rip off and a bad one at that.

It would be magnanimous of Mgoblog to curtail sales of the shirt, but by no means are they "ripping off" Odoms' foundation. That foundation didn't come up with the concept; they only chose it as a way of using the idea for a good cause. Let's not get carried away here.

Wow. Who is going around negging all the comments that point out that this is NOT a rip off. Using the same word, but having a very different looking shirt is not the same at all. Personally, while I'm not in the market for either shirt, I would never want to wear the charity one, but I like the MGoBlog one a lot.

Most likely possibility: UGP already printed hundreds of the shirts, so they want to sell as many as possible before pulling the shirt?

If people want to support the charity then they can buy the Pahokee shirt (or donate directly).  If they are just interested in the design of the MGoStore shirt then they can buy that one.  Personally, I don't like the design of the Pahokee shirt, so I wouldn't consider buying it.  However, I like the MGoStore design and might buy it.  I'm an adult and can make my own decision.  Hopefully others can too, so unless that saying is trademarked by Hope for Pahokee, then I don't know why this is such a big deal.

An important fact that I have not seen stated in this thread is: which shirt came first?

I don't know man. It seems like there are quite a few better ways to handle this and it doesn't seem like, based on your post, those have been tried yet.

(Also, rip-off is a very strong word for a shirt idea that literally everyone thought of when the players started doing it last year. If that's a 'rip-off', then I want credit for the Shoelaces shirt, the dreadlocks shirts, Hokemania shirts and the Mike Martin hulk smash shirts people created because I came up with those ideas before anyone made shirts for them.)

I get #eating is a great cause, but this isn't the right way to go about it. Wayyy more vinegar in this post than required.

I'm not into design patents, but the two shirts are substantially different. On a lot of levels. Can no one use the word "eatin'" or "eating" anymore on a shirt?

Your request for a response is reasonable. Your request to have the shirt pulled or all the profits donated is not. My guess is that the shirt is already made and it is not in the cards to suddenly throw out all the shirts or donate all proceeds (or profits) on it.

I like your post in that it brings attention to the very worthwhile cause Odoms has started. Maybe a nice thing the folks at MGoStore could do would be to link to the cause so people can buy whichever shirt (or both if they want).

I'm not sure exactly what happened here, but I'm going to notify Brian about it. I'm not sure that he's even aware of this concern. 

All I ask, is that we all please calm down and give Brian a chance to address the concern of the MGoUsers. Brian can not patrol this board all on his own. That's why he has moderators, like myself that do it for him. If anybody has screwed up here, it's us, the moderators. Personally, I didn't know that this was a concern until this evening. Brian makes every effort to address the concerns of the people that frequent the blog. This site gets, in the neighborhood, of  6 million page views a month. I'm sure you can imagine the large amounts of e-mail that Brian receives. If he has not answered your e-mails, it doesn't mean that he isn't interested in your concerns or that he doesn't feel that they are valid. 

-Eric Upchurch

Disclaimer:

I'm simply the photographer for the site. I don't make executive decisions, but I do have direct contact with Brian. I will do my best to make sure that he is aware of this concern. 

You know this dance wasn't invented by Odoms right? You know they didnt start doing the dance to help Pahokee right? If anything the shirt will bring more awareness to a great cause but your indignation is a little over the top. Email Brian if you are so pissed, I think he will handle it better then you have.

At the end of the day I like the MGoStore and I like Six-Zero.  That said.

In my mind Odoms has the prior art on this.  His #Eating concept came first.  The players from Florida popularized it with the eating gesture*, the charity he established made use of the Eating hashtang, and started out the idea of clothing.  I would prefer that Six-Zero's shirt simply cease to exsist or the profits for that specific shirt be redirected to the charity.

Secondly I do feel as if the blog has been dodging this issue.  Concern over that shirt was the first comment made in the unveiling thread and the comments replying to it supported that comment.  There was no reply by anyone associated with the business end of MGoBlog.

My personal view is that if this shirt remains for sale with profits returning to the blog, UGP (sales@undergroundshirts.com) and Moe Sport Shops (customerservice@moesportshops.com) will be getting an email informing them of my displeasure and the fact while that shirt is for sale, my business will be going to one of the sports shops that isn't a partner of MGoBlog (Ulrichs, M-Den,etc).  I'd encourage others to do the same.  

I'd have much rather seen one of the gag Upton shirts get greenlight and moved en masse to the tasteless party boy market demographic.  As it stands this entire ecosystem is built on the backs of students who do it all for scholarships (assuming they're not a walkon) as amateurs.  The entire field already makes a tidy profit off their image and efforts, which is one of the reasons many people, including Brian, have argued that these students deserve cost of living stipends and the like.  To turn around and issue something that might even come close to cutting into the charity efforts of one of these individuals, after arguing they deserve more compensation, is just unacceptable to me.  Brian rants and rails about Brandon selling us out and all that, but he has no issue dropping a product that at the very least brushes up against the fundraising efforts of current and former players, I really just have to shake my head at that.  

*The only time I've seen this gesture in my life was when players in winged helmets did it. The NFL may have done it and all that, but the concept of 'Eating' is marketable to the Michigan fanbase because of what players on our roster from Florida did.  

**Preface: I am in no way involved in the MGoStore stuff, and have no input in the whole shirt thing**

Generally speaking, posting actual concerns in the comments is a terrible way to communicate with Brian, and is not even an especially reliable way to be sure information has been relayed to a poster if they don't respond. If you have a serious concern, you can e-mail mgoblog (at) gmail.com. Or you can contact one of the mods (who are on the board WAY more often than Brian/Ace/etc.), who can relay information to the appropriate party.

I will email Six-Zero and Brian momentarily to make sure they were aware of the situation. I don't know if they will respond to the OP, but the information will be in their possession this evening.

As to the issue itself, I think it's important to note that the phrase "we're eatin'" pre-dates the creation of the Hope for Pahokee shirt. It was a statement made during the season, and Odoms didn't start HFP until after he stopped playing (I'm not even sure it would have been NCAA permissible for an active player). Also, I consider myself one of the more attentive Michigan fans and MGoBlog users, and I had almost completely forgotten about the Hope for Pahokee shirt, let alone the design. I didn't even note the correlation when I first saw the shirts, and I didn't notice any comments about it in the thread.  So to attribute Six Zero's design (which is completely different from Odoms') to maliciousness when an equally (if not more) plausible explanation is inadvertant correlation is a leap I'm not willing to make/

Finally, there are ways to make a point without subsequently being a jackass in the comments. Just a thought.