Concordia University of Michigan "CUM" Merchandise

Confirmed 52,598

Overview

Concordia University of Michigan "CUM" Merchandise refers to an unauthorized eCommerce webpage by PrepSportswear.com. The page features illicit apparel for the private Christian college Concordia University of Michigan that carries the acronym "CUM." Students of the university and social media users mocked the page, while the University denied any connection to PrepSportswear.com.

History

On December 12th, 2018, PrepSportswear.com's Concordia University of Michigan web store launched.^[1]

In late October 2020, TikToker @alanagarlitz published a video in which she writes, "My private Lutheran College came out with new merch." Following the text, the TikToker shows screenshots of the PrepSports.com page. The video is private. On November 1st, writer Jessica Valenti tweeted the video. The post received more than 496,000 views, 14,000 likes and 4,500 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

This is fucking incredible pic.twitter.com/ToijaPjnPX

— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) November 1, 2020

On October 31st, many online shared images from the page. For example, Twitter^[2] user mlildom911 shared a series of pictures from the page. They wrote, "Concordia University of Michigan sure has some interesting apparel…" The tweet received more than 32,000 likes and 10,000 retweets in less than two days (shown below, left).

That day, Redditor^[3] Potato_Demon_ffff shared a picture from the page that shows the "CUM" inside of a heart outline. The post received more than 4,200 points (98% upvoted) in less than two days (shown below, right).

dominic b. @lildom911 000 concordia university of michigan sure has some interesting apparel.. C-- C-- WRESTLING C-- C-- CHEER DAD CATCHER RACK 11:37 AM · Oct 31, 2020 · Tweetbot for Mac

JERZEES Unisex NuBlend® 80z Crewneck Sweatshirt With Sparkle Twill C-- SPARKLE TWILL EMBROIDERED LETTERING COLOR: RED

Criticism

The university denied any connection to the website. On November 1st, 2020, Mashable ^[4] spoke with Concordia University Wisconsin's Assistant Vice President of Strategic Communications Lisa Liljegren. She said, "We have no idea how this happened. It was a surprise to us as well that someone put a video out on TikTok of that cap, and that just kind of blew up overnight."