You don’t need to get tackled to feel the new grass in Spartan Stadium.
A Connecticut-based manufacturing consultant company came up with the idea last year to take clippings from the new turf and make keepsakes from it.
“They bought the trademark from us,” Terry Livermore, spokesperson for MSU Licensing said.
“It’s sold by Spartan Marketing Inc., so they have all say on how it’s being marketed.”
Barton Associate Inc. has put the trademark to use once already and patented a mouse pad.
“We made paper with it,” Barton Associate Inc. President John Barton said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to sell what we made.”
The grass isn’t the first natural product the company, which represents manufacturing and industrial supply companies, has used to make stationary.
The company has been in business for about 40 years, but decided to make the mementos last year.
Barton said the company also used coffee, leaves, mouse pads and pine needles to make products.
“We thought students or alumni would like a keepsake,” Barton said. “It’s definitely an MSU product.”
Barton also said writing journals will be one of the items produced from the clippings.
A few hundred books have been printed, but Barton isn’t sure what the demand for his product will be until they have been tested.
“We’re talking to some bookstores,” Barton said. “The College Store has a few in stock now. They’re really just testing it out.”
Barton said he spoke with officials from MSU Licensing who said the Spartan Marching Band might want to use the souvenirs as part of a fund-raising activity.
“The success of it depends on if people know about it,” he said. “We don’t really know what the demand will be.”
Employees at the company were excited about the potential of the product.
“They’re really eye-catching,” Barton Associates, Inc. Office Manager Gail Barton said.
“We’re really excited about getting the product out there.”
Gail Barton said the company works with a paper mill where inclusion of the clippings are processed and Barton Associates Inc. assembles them by hand.
“I think the fans are so great and they love football so much,” she said.
“What more could you want as a memory of so many football Saturdays?
“If I were a college student, I’d love to have a book with grass from the stadium,” she said. “They’ve got part of the stadium with them.”
