How Clemson baseball aims to stand out with customized gear and input from Jazz Chisholm

New York Times

07-02-2025

You may have seen the ice cream glove or the Statue of Liberty sliding mitt, but the eye-catching designs made by the fittingly named Absolutely Ridiculous are more than just novelties.
'The intent was to make an art piece with an infusion of culture, to get the creative juices out there,' said their award-winning artist and creative director, who goes by X.
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The brand's name stems from being told this idea was 'absolutely ridiculous' by the top baseball glove brands in the business. Since Absolutely Ridiculous was founded in 2021, its fusion of sports, art and self-expression has spread throughout the baseball landscape and is now on display in almost every Major League game. This led to a youth movement across little leagues, with parents buying the flashy mitts the pros are using for their kids. But in between little league and the pros is the college game, which is now undergoing a self-expression revolution through the rise of NIL.
Clemson's baseball team announced a partnership with Absolutely Ridiculous on Jan. 23. Entering his third season with the program, Clemson Tigers coach Erik Bakich has built a fun-loving culture that's resulted in a combined 88-35 record over his first two seasons. In November, his team even played an exhibition against the Savannah Bananas that included choreographed dances and players riding in on horses. Clemson is ranked No. 8 overall in The Athletic's preseason top 25.
The Tigers will be the first collegiate team outfitted by Absolutely Ridiculous when they don its gloves and sliding mitts this season. The Virginia Cavaliers, meanwhile, announced a deal in October with another newcomer to the college space, the more traditional, Wilson-owned Evoshield.
'(Absolutely Ridiculous') products not only shine a spotlight on a player's individual personality, but it has pioneered a new and different way to build fun and camaraderie into team sports,' Bakich said in a press release announcing the deal.
Those elements were on display when Absolutely Ridiculous' director of culture/part-owner and member of the New York Yankees Jazz Chisholm attempted to go undercover as a 'Tiger for the Day' (but he couldn't resist showing off some tricks). His attempt, which baseball content creators CS99TV were there to capture, had Chisholm in Clemson and Absolutely Ridiculous gear running through drills on the diamond, catching footballs from Tigers quarterback Cade Klubinik, and trying to hit tennis balls from home plate served from the pitcher's mound.
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'To describe what Absolutely Ridiculous means to me makes me feel like I can show the world who I really am,' Chisholm told The Athletic. 'It lets me be me.'
Chisholm will play an active role in the Clemson partnership.
'This Clemson partnership is one of my favorite collaborations so far since I never had the opportunity to go or play in college,' he said.
Chisholm spent a few days working with the entire Tigers team. He encouraged the players to take an active role in collaborating with the company.
'Everyone takes their own journey and to be able to create your own art, send it in to Absolutely Ridiculous and say, 'This is what I want to do and what I am thinking,'' he told them.
This level of interaction and collaboration is something that Bakich sees as a benefit to his program and players.
'In the world we are in, in college baseball with rev(enue) share and different types of NIL opportunities, any way we can shine the spotlight on our players, put the spotlight on them, create some unique opportunities for them to be different, we want to do that,' he told reporters when announcing the partnership.
Absolutely Ridiculous aims to appeal to Gen Z and Gen Alpha, in particular, groups X said 'call BS on people so easily, they can see through people that are inauthentic.'
That focus on youth is part of why X, himself a former college baseball player, maintains his anonymity.
'I want to encourage kids to dream and follow their imagination,' he said. 'I don't want reasons to exist of why kids could be discouraged to follow their dreams, and didn't want them being influenced by my age, sex, skin color, nationality, etc. I want them to see X, and see themselves in X. To see if X can follow his dreams and use his imagination, then so can I.'
Absolutely Ridiculous' success has prompted a variety of imitations from big brands like Franklin to upstarts like Drip & Rip, Dirty Mids and Flatbill. The involvement of Chisholm remains a unique distinguisher, though. It began with a direct message on social media from X, who then sent Chisholm a glove.
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'There is something about Jazz, the way he plays, his smile…' X said.
Around the time that he first linked up with Absolutely Ridiculous, Chisholm landed the cover of the video game 'MLB The Show 23' and his glove, later referred to as 'The Video Game Glove,' was in the game. The inclusion helped grow the brand via social media and Chisholm invested in it. At this point, other players, like Bryce Harper and Elly De La Cruz, began seeking out Absolutely Ridiculous themselves.
'Now we have guys making their own stuff and thinking about their own ideas,' Chisholm said. 'The job is to show everyone how to do that, how to be yourself, and how to show your personality.'
In the last MLB draft, a majority of the top five selections were wearing Absolutely Ridiculous' gear before being picked, according to the company. With kids gravitating toward their gear and their content, it could prove to be an advantage for a collegiate baseball program to align with it.
'In baseball, it's not always easy to show the world who you are and we (Absolutely Ridiculous) are not only a baseball brand, we can do all sports through artistry and that type of mindset,' Chisholm said.
There have been discussions related to football and basketball, but so far their entry into new sports and categories has been experimental, like making pickleball paddles or turning their sliding mitts into Christmas stockings. The collaboration Chisholm is the most excited about is with One Piece and Naruto — two Japanese manga series he has tattooed on him.
In the first year of the Clemson deal, players will select their gloves from a catalog of past designs. Absolutely Ridiculous will then customize them to fit their self-expression. Clemson's players can add anything to the design, and players who play multiple positions will have multiple gloves. One player, for example, opted for the Ice Cream gloves, modified the colors, and added names and patches to it.
The sliding mitts feature three different designs: a Clemson lettermark, the paw logo, and the Tiger mascot. Accompanying hats and merchandise are in the works and will be for sale.
The second year aims to be more design-focused, with the players working more closely with the company to customize their looks. In addition to the equipment, there's also a content element to the partnership that aims to make Clemson the coolest program in college baseball by having Absolutely Ridiculous showcase them like they do their big league clients — highlighting self-expression and individual personalities.
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'Back when I was growing up, Rawlings and Wilson were the brands you wanted to wear, but at the end of the day, I always wanted to be me. And that's when X messaged me, a day or week out of my Rawlings deal, asking if I wanted to do some crazy stuff with my glove. That's when he asked if I liked ice cream. And I was either going to get ice cream or eating it at that time. That's when X said, we could put that on a glove. And I replied, 'We could do that?' And we did. It was love at first sight.'
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(Top photo of Chisholm with the Clemson players: Absolutely Ridiculous)