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A Kalamazoo Collegiate Baseball Team Is Making a Jersey Out of Selfies

photo: northwoodsleague

photo: northwoodsleague

The Kalamazoo Growlers want to wear your selfies.

The Kalamazoo, Michigan-based team—a member of the Northwoods League, a college summer baseball circuit—just launched a social media campaign asking fans to submit their best selfies, which the Growlers will use to build an actual game jersey. So goes the announcement:

The Kalamazoo Growlers are giving fans the opportunity to put their selfie skills to productive use with a Salute To Selfie Night during the 2014 season.

A selfie is defined as a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website. To participate in the promotion, simply take a selfie and post it to one of the Growlers social media accounts. Selfies can be posted directly to the Growlers official Facebook page – or by mentioning @kzoogrowlers on Twitter or Instagram and by using #SaluteToSelfie.

The team will collect images through March and then build a "unique selfie collage jersey ", which the Growlers will wear during a game on July 24.

This post wouldn't be complete without a rendering:

instagram/kzoogrowlers

instagram/kzoogrowlers

I can't say I'm on board with the idea. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters jerseys are cool, pop-culture influenced promotions that make minor league baseball charmingly offbeat. This "SaluteToSelfie" nonsense reeks of trying-too-hard.

The jersey is also ugly and gives off a stalker-y, uneasy vibe—the rendering looks like something you might find in Rust Cohle's war room. And as With Leather's Brandon Stroud pointed out, someone with the Northwoods League decided to double down on the social media offensive, tossing in the "Keep Calm and Take Selfies" meme.

Nevertheless, many people are saluting to selfie, including this fella who took a mouth-open shot with an eyes-closed Sinbad. I suppose if the campaign results in a jersey featuring unflattering images of has-been celebrities, I can find some consolation in that.

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