—by Garrett Dittfurth

Take this as a moment where I'm struck by something and I need to post about it type of thing.

Sometimes I wonder that there might be a misconception that some people make a profit off the Timbers Army. That idea couldn't be further from the truth.

Years before the Portland Timbers had an owner willing to drop the words Major League Soccer there were people out there promoting the team on their own. At points during the USL stage of the Timbers the only way to get something with the name Timbers on it was to buy it from someone who designed and paid for it themselves because the team was owned by a bunch of people that thought AAA baseball was the path to big bucks in Portland.

Those days are over. You can get tons of awesome stuff from the team now. Get that amazing third kit while you still can. Their stuff is awesome and we encourage you to check it out.

Yes we do have our own independent merchandise store. You've probably purchased something from the No Pity Van. Do you like tifo? Were you a fan of the "King of Clubs" banner at the Seattle match or the "It Takes an Army to Raise a Club" banners for the opener last year?

To do things like this it costs tens of thousands of dollars. We aren't given the tens of thousands of dollars it costs to make those banners from Major League Soccer or the Portland Timbers. It all comes through you, your memberships to 107ist? or that t-shirt you bought at the No Pity Van. In addition 107ist uses the funds from the No Pity Van to fund things like Harper's Playground.

The people that work on merchandise for the Timbers Army do it without much love. That's why I'm posting this. Every single one of them does this on volunteer hours for no money so that we all can reap the benefits through awesome tifo displays in the stadium and amazing community outreach to our city through efforts like Harper's Playground. The merch guys are often forgotten but their creativity and heartfelt donation of their time and energy to support the team, town and TA should be celebrated. So next time you're out and about and see one of those guys you know designed something, stood in front of a van for hours for no money, or made an awesome video thank them. Those people are what makes Portland great and what makes supporting the Timbers amazing. If you see a shot of banners in the crowd that's paid for by our merch fund. Videos of smoke...the smoke is paid for by our merch fund. Videos of awesome tifo banners...the tifo is paid for by our merch fund. Here's an awesome video a bunch of people our merch team made that you should love. All of this is made for love of the club and support by people like YOU!