Oregon’s Duck has been made into a Pillow Pet. So has USC’s Trojan Horse. Even the University of Utah Ute is now a Pillow Pet. (And we didn’t even know what a Ute was supposed to look like until we saw the stuffed equivalent.) Thousands of college students across the nation have a plushy pal to cuddle with during finals, thanks to Pillow Pets USA.
But not Cal students.
We must suffer through the end of the semester without an Oski Pillow Pet. Even though we’re on par with all the other Pac-12 schools, Pillow Pets has yet to make a Golden Bear. Considering that bears are the quintessence of stuffed animals, this is heartbreaking for Cal’s stuffed animal aficionados.
Alex Smith is on top of this problem, though. A first-year political science and psychology double major with an intention to minor in history, she’s taking on a lot already. But as our Rally Committee’s director of traditions, her dedication to preserving Cal spirit isn’t surprising. Through Change.org, she petitioned Pillow Pets, imploring them to design and sell a Cal Pillow Pet. If she can collect at least 5,000 signatures, there will be a Golden Bear Pillow Pet. You know you need one of these.
Smith initially thought about a Cal pillow pet in November, when she was trying to find a Christmas present for her niece and nephew at a T.J. Maxx. What better gift for family members than Cal gear? But there were no Cal pillow pets. USC, Oregon, UCLA and even Fresno State were represented. But not Cal.
“I wrote a letter back in November, but nothing ever came of it,” she told the Clog. But with finals coming up — who really wants to focus on those 24/7? — Smith decided to revisit her idea. She wrote the petition just this last week and, within 12 hours, received a response from Jeneka Brown, the Ideas Coordinator of Pillow Pets, saying that they were the wrong organization to petition. However, Smith wouldn’t let that stop her. She got in touch with Cal Licensing, which revealed that there was a plan for a Cal Pillow Pet back in 2011, but no one liked the design.
Now Smith has a new design in mind that Cal Licensing already seems to like. She envisions an Oski Pillow Pet — the cute Oski logo, though, not our mascot’s costume, because there are many doubts about its cuteness versus creepiness. The Pillow Pet would be California gold and Yale blue, of course, and would feature the cute Oski face and the Cal script logo.
If approved, the Pillow Pet will be available to thousands of Cal students, fans and families who never realized that they were excluded from the Pillow Pet market. Anyone would have the option of purchasing a Cal Pillow Pet. Who could ever argue against that?
Well, Sykel Enterprises, the licensed manufacturer for Pillow Pets USA, along with Fabrique Innovations, the bigger corporation, is worried that there isn’t a market for our plush Golden Bear.
“Their concern was that they’re not going to sell,” Smith says.
So along with her petition, her goal this summer is to talk to local businesses and airports to find out if they are interested in selling the Pillow Pet. The petition plays a big role in showing the dissenting businesses that there is support for this project.
Smith is using Facebook and Twitter to publicize her petition and hopes to make a YouTube video to aid in her efforts.
She says, “5000′s the number I’m going for. Everyone’s on board to do it. I just have to convince Fabrique to let me design it.”
Smith cites exciting Cal Sports news as proof of why we should have a Pillow Pet. Remember how our women’s basketball team made it to the Final Four this year? That means that not only students but alumni and Cal sports fans who aren’t even affiliated with the school could be potential customers. More sports support comes directly from Layshia Clarendon, a star on our women’s basketball, who supports Smith’s Pillow Pet proposal.
Smith also hopes that the hiring of new football coach Sonny Dykes will renew faith in Cal football and thus create more customers for the pillow pet.
“We have a light going on us this year,” Smith says. “We have a chance to do great things. I thought, ‘Why wait?’”
Cal shouldn’t play the waiting game, especially so we can get our Pillow Pet before Stanford gets wise to the trend. Smith notes, “Stanford doesn’t have a Pillow Pet, and we definitely need to have one before them.” We agree with her: If Stanford’s Pillow Pet would look anything like their mascot this year, it would certainly be the scariest and most awkward invention of all time. And while there are tree-huggers among us in Berkeley, who really wants to snuggle up with a stuffed tree?
If you have any doubts, remember this: We’re one of the oldest universities in the Pacific Conference and one of the top public universities in the world. If nearly every other Pac-12 school has its own Pillow Pet, why don’t we?
Image source: RiverRatt3 (left) and CarbonNYC (right), under Creative Commons
Contact Jessica Rogness at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @jessarogness.