AND YOU SHOULD TOO!
A message circulated internally at TREK BICYCLES has laid out the proper way both to pronounce and spell the new team's name. The email first surfaced over at chez Bike Snob NYC, where the Snob predictably had his share of fun with the proceedings.
Details? The team name must be in ALL CAPS: LEOPARD TREK. BE PROUD! YELL IT! Also, you must not preface the team name with the word TEAM. TEAM LEOPARD TREK, SO WRONG! SMASH TEAM LEOPARD TREK! THE LEOPARD TREK TEAM, SO BEAUTIFUL IN ALL ITS RIGHTNESS! Also, the correct pronunciation is not the anglosachian Leppard, but the Europe-fantastic LAY-o-PARD. MAKE SURE TO SAY THIS IN YOUR HEAD EVERY TIME YOU SEE THE LEOPARD TREK TEAM JERSEY! IN UNISON! SING IT LOUD AND STRONG!
In regular people style, one uses all caps for acronyms. Ted tries to uncover what LEOPARD could possibly mean, with rather amusing results. (scroll to commments.) CycleSport, meanwhile, is not playing. "We won’t be capitalizing the name of the team in our magazine, nor on our website," they wrote on their blog this morning. NO CAPS LOCK FOR YOU! No word on whether the staff at CycleSport will say LAY-o-PARD or leppard when discusssing the LEOPARD TREK TEAM.
Everyone knows that CAPS LOCK is like, so yesterday. In a lovely bit of internet synchronicity, Christopher Beam declares in Slate today that Caps Lock is "an outdated scourge." Coming up next, SLATE announced as presenting sponsor of LEOPARD TREK TEAM.
Congratulations on your awesome branding effort, team leopard trek.