The Yankees made the Torpedo Bat the talk of the sports world after clubbing 15 home runs during a season-opening sweep of the Brewers.
The new bats, which shift more mass toward the core, lit social media ablaze with debate, speculation and controversy.
It was only a matter of time until the bats reached retail, as Marucci and Victus released three Torpedo Bat models for purchase on their site Monday night.
This got us thinking: What are some of the other viral sensations that have made their way from pro sports to the masses?
Reebok Pump shoes
During the 1991 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, Dee Brown bent over and began “pumping up” his Reebok Omni Zone Pump shoes.
“The more he pumped, the louder the fans got, the more the players sitting courtside cheered,” wrote Josh Weinfuss in a 2019 story for ESPN.
Reebok had released the new-age sneaker in 1989, and the company had tapped Brown to use the dunk contest in 1991 to raise awareness for the shoe.
Before each one of Brown’s dunks, he bent over and pumped up his sneakers. Then, after all of his dunks, he would bend over and let the air out of the shoe.
The stunt was already creating a massive buzz around the sneaker, but things reached a whole new level when Brown unveiled his arm-over-his-eyes dunk to beat Shawn Kemp for the title.
The following Monday, Reebok took out a full-page ad in USA Today with a photo of the dunk, according to Weinfuss.
Shooting sleeves
Allen Iverson’s impact on culture was arguably greater than his influence on the game of basketball itself.
In the early 2000s, his every move was emulated by idolizing fans and kids — influencing fashion on the court and off.
Perhaps his biggest contribution to the apparel world was the shooting sleeve. Originally meant to help with the swelling on his shooting elbow in January 2001, Iverson wore a “swath of a tube bandage called compression stockinette,” according to a Jay Caspian King story in The New Yorker.
Iverson posted a 51-point game wearing the sleeve and averaged more than 35 points for the rest of the season.
In Caspian King’s retelling, Under Armour ...