Satoransky Socks

The Wizards changed things up on me. I'm usually all over the Wiz promotional schedule (which lately - meaning for years now - has been miserably pathetic) but they added one in on me. And I missed it.

Sort of. I knew about it. I just let my tickets sell on Ticketmaster to someone who wanted to see Dwyane Wade's last game in Washington more than I did. Because I didn't want to see and hear Capital One Arena treat Wade the way they treated Kobe in his last game in the District at all. No interest in that especially when I checked out of this season just about a month after the Wizards team checked out. So...like December.

So what was it? What was this giveaway the Wizards slid in between their first (on opening night) and second (for home game 40) true promotional nights of the year? It's actually pretty cool as a concept. The team handed out player socks featuring 1980s video game style knitted likenesses of John Wall, Bradley Beal and Tomas Satoransky. And yes, the Wizards did give away absolutely nothing at the door this year in games 2 through 39.

If I were rating this giveaway during my annual promotional schedule roundup at the beginning of the season, I would likely rate this as "essential". So of course I had to have some, even though I'd opted to sell all four of my tickets for the night for $86 of profit (which can offset oh so slightly the more than $1,000 lost during the first six games of March which I couldn't attend). And as usual for things I want that are in limited supply, I turned to eBay where lo and behold I found some Tomas Satoransky socks being offered for the low low price of less than $20. Sold!

They arrived yesterday and they are pretty sweet. Although admittedly they are not without their strangeness, and I don't mean the image on the socks.

I find it odd that the socks feature the Geico jersey patch but not the Nike swoosh.

First of all, I love these as an idea and I love that the team finally gave out something specific-player oriented that wasn't geared towards John Wall and Bradley Beal. Sato deserves a spot on the promotional schedule this year and he got it, albeit he is sharing it with Wall and Beal. Although not in my house he's not because I'm not going to hunt down Wall and Beal socks on eBay or anywhere else.

So here's the thing about free stuff handed out at NBA arenas: they are often low grade versions of things you would actually spend money on. If it's a bobblehead, the paint isn't always applied as precisely as it could be; if it's a poster, the paper's not quite as thick as it would be if it were being sold to people; and if it's a shirt, the quality is just not as good as something you would get at a store. These socks fit that mold. The texture is off. It's almost as if some cheap socks have been spray-painted with an image. And they probably feel like that because that's likely exactly what happened. They also feel like a cross between dress socks and the compression socks I wear on long haul airline flights. Maybe a little snug.

Does that spoil my enjoyment of these socks? Maybe a little. I may need to be pretty conservative about wearing these things and just roll them out for special occasions, like the first time Sato makes an All-Star Game or the Wizards make the Conference Finals. Does it make me feel like I wasted money on eBay? Absolutely not!

I tried them on. They fit. They didn't necessarily return to their original shape once I took them off after about maybe a total of five minutes. I'm not sure that bodes well for their long-term survival. For now, I dropped them in the back of my sock drawer near my Duff beer socks, which I also save for special occasions, like weddings. Not kidding. I wear Duff beer socks to weddings.

I'll end this post with a renewal of my message to the Wizards about the promotional schedule: more bobbleheads please! There is one on the slate for this Friday. No way am I missing that one.

Definitely a special occasion sock!