 "Photo: Christina Deparis")
The black and gold school colors that reign over UCF just got a bit more colorful. Victoria’s Secret recently announced that UCF would be added to the PINK Collegiate Collection, a new brand of the company that was launched last summer.
“Having a UCF line is important to us because it shows that our school is being taken seriously by a big deal company,” said Lia Gregory, a senior at UCF. “Even though we are already one of the biggest schools in the nation, it is kind of validating to join the ranks of ACC and SEC schools in Victoria’s Secret’s line.”
Gregory, along with thousands of other people, helped vote to make this happen.
The PINK Collegiate Collection, which started off featuring 33 universities last July, determined the next 24 universities to be added to the line through an online competition in which people could cast votes for their school of choice.
To help advance UCF in this competition, sophomore Trang Leminh spread her motivation to make this happen onto others through Facebook in July 2008.
“I started the group to get the word out to our school that we needed votes if we ever wanted to have our own PINK line,” Leminh said. “Facebook makes it very easy to invite a large amount of people to a group. I invited my whole friends list, then those people invite more people, and the chain continues until the group is thriving. Also, whenever I heard someone complain that UCF did not have a PINK line, I informed them to check out the group so they could learn what they could do to help.”
The group has attracted more than 2,900 members, who Leminh frequently messaged and reminded to go on the Victoria’s Secret site and vote.
“All you had to do was go to the Victoria's Secret Web site and type in the name of your school in the voting box,” Leminh said. “Students could go there daily and vote more than once. The Web site provided a chart with school rankings so we knew how well we were doing.”
On June 15, VictoriasSecret.com officially announced that UCF was one of the top colleges, after a semester of voting, to receive its own line for PINK.
Kristen Poz Porter, a UCF alumna and Facebook group member said she played an active role by voting for two main reasons.
“First, the clothes are comfortable and really cute,” Porter said. “Secondly, I wanted to show my school spirit as an alumni. As an alumni I love wearing my school colors. Victoria’s Secret coming out with a UCF line is a sign that our school is more than just a commuter school — it is a school that has got a solid, recognizable name in terms of school spirit and education.”
The UCF collection, which began showing up in Orlando stores since mid-June, has received a positive response.
Lisa Klein, a sales associate for the Victoria’s Secret in the Waterford Lakes Town Center, said that the store has been busy with people asking for the new UCF line, especially incoming freshmen.
“The UCF line is permanent and what is awesome about it is that they will be making warm-weather items like shorts, tanks, maybe bikinis, and cold-weather items like sweats and sweatshirts to buy,” Klein said. “We already carry the line in the Waterford store and you can start ordering items online the last week of June.”
Porter, who has already purchased some items from the UCF collection, finds the clothing line a relaxing way for women to show their school spirit.
“I purchased the gray drawstring sweatpants and the matching zip-up hoodie,” she said.
“Both contain images of Knightro and the year UCF was established. Phrases like PINK loves UCF and Black + Gold + PINK adorn the clothing as well.”
Leminh, who created the Facebook group, found out that UCF was being added to the PINK Collegiate Collection by chance, while on its Web site the morning it was released.
“I was ecstatic, and I really was not expecting it,” Leminh said. “A large majority of girls at UCF already shop at Victoria’s Secret. With this line, they now have the opportunity to still wear Victoria’s Secret, but also show school spirit at the same time.”
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