Acme Soccer & Widget Works
Half comic book, half soccer catalog…that’s probably the best way I could describe the Acme Soccer & Widget Works catalog. Each catalog followed Billy Preston and his team FC Nil. Bill and his teammates would face different obstacles in each catalog. Billy gets his Acme Boots Stolen in this issue…quickly needing another pair of quality boots at a reasonable price…before FC Nil faces off against the mighty Bayern Monster.
Acme was kind of like Eurosport’s older brother Kyle. You know Kyle…he’s the kid who moves above the garage and spends a good portion of his time trading Dead shows from 77. He’s conscientious about the environment and doesn’t seem all that interested in turning a profit. He does what he does because he likes to…not because he has to. Yeah…Acme was that guy.
Acme was great for finding rare gems at great prices. It was rare that you came across a pair of Hi-Tec or Patrick boots in the other catalogs…Acme sold them…and sold them on the cheap. I always assumed that Acme sold all of the inventory that Eurosport didn’t want to sell in their catalog…either because it was a few years old…or they just had a surplus of gear.
Acme was green before it was cool to say you were “green.” Their catalogs were printed on recycled paper with soy inks. They urged subscribers to recycle their catalogs. I’ve been recycling this catalog for about 15 years…as the wear and tear depicts.
This particular catalog was created and illustrated by Jeff Poe and Candis Rivers.
Acme was the best, they had the best prices on some of the best stuff around. You could get last years $50 and up keeper gloves for $15. Kits from all over the world for a better than fair price. This was before you could just order anything online. Living in middle America, Acme catalog was a gem of football culture to me and helped make me the proudly football obsessed man I am today.
Exactly! That’s what I loved about it.
Growing up we used to always hit the Adidas factor outlet in Spartanburg, SC on the way home from Hilton Head. It wasn’t like an Adidas store in an outlet mall…it was an actual factory. You’d have to rummage through a pile of Adi Spezials to find your size, you’d have to sift through a box full of replicas to find the jersey you wanted…everything was cheap too.
Acme reminded me of the Adidas Factory Outlet. You would never find the latest gear…but you would always find rare gear. It was a great place to find things that your friends didn’t have, Hummel apparel, and old PSV Eindhoven jersey, patrick boots.
I’ve been out of the loop for years, does Acme still have a catalo & mail-order service? I haven’t been able to find anything online, just an N.C. location (not sure if it’s current).
I ordered the heck out of some Acme gear back in high school!
Is there anything like Acme around today? I have looked, and I have not seen any thing comparable in quality and price to Acme back in the day.