Texas Rangers, 2011 World Champs

Somebody somewhere may already be wearing a T-shirt or cap proclaiming the Rangers winners of last year’s World Series. That’s because before every major sporting championship, vendors order boxfuls of apparel proclaiming both teams the winner, so they’ll be ready to sell the right ones immediately after the outcome is final. But what happens to the “wrong” ones? Vendors can return them in unopened boxes to the leagues that licensed their printing, and then they’re donated to humanitarian groups, which deliver them around the world. These groups include the Christian relief and development organization World Vision, which handed out over $2 million worth of clothing from the Chicago Bears’ loss in Superbowl XLI. Speaking about their ongoing distribution of this kind of sports gear, Dean Owen, a World Vision executive, said, “The clothing has been distributed in about 20 countries, all over Africa, to Asian nations, to Latin America and Europe. It goes to places of the greatest need, definitely not to Sweden, but definitely to Zimbabwe.”