The Final Frontier of Branding: NFL Team Logo Crock-Pots and More

With the Super Bowl Sunday just two days away, football fans are certainly looking forward to this weekend, whether or not they’re fans of the Seahawks or Patriots. You can find nearly any product emblazoned with your team’s logo — it is even possible to buy officially licensed, Pantone-perfect NFL paint from Glidden. The options to show your affiliation are limitless. Take for example the NFL Crock-Pot, a slow-cooker with your favorite team’s name on it.

The pot represents the logical conclusion of brand extensions. This old-school cooking method is simply re-clad in a system of team colors and logos, which are predetermined and approved. The template is applied to a host of different products, breathing new life — and salability — into old products. You can teach a dog new tricks, and those tricks are NFL-licensed.

The Crock-Pots, like all other team merchandise, come in a standard model, re-surfaced 32 times to create a series of variations. They become an instant typology, differentiated only by their surface treatments, making them politically charged. NFL team affiliations are one way many people construct their identity, and form the modern-day equivalent of tribes or clans.

This makes them significant yet somehow disturbing. On one hand, these designs are a collective identity for masses of people, brought together in athletic competition. On the other, a cynic could look at it as pure marketing capitalizing on every facet of life — clothes, bumper stickers, baseball hats. With Crock-Pots and other home goods, this logo-wash extends into the domestic interior, becoming another layer of corporate commodification.

For now, have a look at some of the craziest branded NFL merchandise. All of these designs should be available for all 32 teams.