{"product_id":"vintage-sunday-river-viking-embroidered-patch","title":"Sunday River Viking Mascot Patch — c. 1970s","description":"\u003cp\u003eA vintage Sunday River ski patch from Newry, Maine, estimated to date from the 1970s, a pointed shield with a gold merrowed border on kelly green — Sunday in white blackletter across the top, River at the foot, and between them the face of a Viking in a brown horned helmet with gold horns, eyes closed and an enormous white walrus mustache spreading from one edge of the shield to the other. A Viking. In Newry, Maine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA Viking. In Newry, Maine. The connection to skiing is Scandinavian at the absolute outside, and nobody involved appears to have worried about it for a moment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the kind of mascot a mountain adopts with real enthusiasm, puts on everything for four seasons, and then retires without comment when new management arrives and asks what exactly the Viking is doing. There is no announcement. He is simply not on next year's trail map.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMascot patches are what collectors actually chase, and this is why. A logo is a company's property and gets protected, archived and re-released. A mascot is somebody's idea, and when it stops being the idea, every trace of it goes in a skip behind the maintenance building.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHe survived. Look at that mustache.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThere is no archive of retired mascots anywhere in American skiing. No museum collects them, no resort keeps the artwork, and the people who drew them were almost always freelance and unnamed. What exists is whatever happened to get sewn onto a jacket and survive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEmbroidered on twill, merrowed edge. Photos are the condition report.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ropetow Vintage Co.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55537882759473,"sku":"RV-ME-125","price":70.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0996\/2048\/7473\/files\/ropetow-vintage-co-sunday-river-viking-patch.webp?v=1785620269","url":"https:\/\/ropetowvintage.com\/products\/vintage-sunday-river-viking-embroidered-patch","provider":"Ropetow Vintage","version":"1.0","type":"link"}