Thursday, 08 Oct 2020 08:46 GMT

Printed sports fans trend reaches US

A new printing trend brought about by the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis has found its way to the US, having already had a major impact on the UK market.

As sports fans are still not able to attend professional sports events due to the pandemic, teams have taken to offering supporters a unique way of ensuring they still have presence inside stadia during games.

Supporters have been able to purchase printed cut-outs of themselves, with these then placed in seats around the stadium to make it look like thousands of fans are still in attendance.

Clubs across football’s English Premier League, and indeed the lower divisions, have taken advantage of the trend, while professional teams over in the US have also started to take notice.

One such team is NFL American football franchise the Philadelphia Eagles, which has teamed up with Ricoh to offer fans the chance to have their cut-out placed inside Lincoln Financial Field.

These fan cut-outs are another way of persevering, of showing our customers, our partners and our people that we understand the value of community”

Ricoh partner image360 Marlton prints the cut-outs in-house on its Ricoh Pro TF6250 flatbed, with fans able to personalise their images via the Eagles’ website.

Cut-outs are available for $100, with all net proceeds going to the Eagles Autism Foundation charitable organisation.

“Eagles fans mean everything to us and their presence at Lincoln Financial Field has always been a signature trademark of our game day experience,” Eagles’ senior vice president, revenue and strategy, Catherine Carlson, says.

“While unprecedented circumstances have prevented us from hosting fans in the stadium at this time, we still wanted to showcase their relentless passion and support in a unique way.”

Gavin Jordan-Smith, senior vice president, commercial and industrial print at Ricoh Americas, adds: “From graphics on grocery floors to wayfinding signs on reconfigured college campuses, print has been helping our society persevere at a time when so many fundamental aspects of it are changing.

“These fan cut-outs are another way of persevering, of showing our customers, our partners and our people that we understand the value of community.”