Concordia University in Michigan's Acronym Merch Is An Internet Mystery For The Ages

Reader, have you ever wanted high-quality, athletic-inspired apparel to show the world just how much you love C.U.M. -- a.k.a. Concordia University in Michigan?  Earlier this week, eagle-eyed internet users came across what was advertised as new and surprisingly unfortunate merch from Concordia University, a small Lutheran school located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, emblazoned with what seemed to be their school's acronym. Because nothing says school spirit like wearing your Concordia University pride on your head ...

on your t-shirt ...

or embroidered on a glittery hoodie ...

Nice. Soon after, these, um, very wholesome designs, faced the mockery of the internet, getting absolutely roasted on r/OneJob, in a post which has garnered more than 4,300 upvotes, with someone claiming to be a sheepish student sharing their shame in a now-private viral TikTok that has since been immortalized on Twitter.

Yet amid the chaos, there is one tiny catch -- University officials say they had nothing to do with the merch, according to Mashable. "We have no idea how this happened," Concordia University Wisconsin's Assistant Vice President of Strategic Communications, Lisa Liljegren, told the publication. "It was a surprise to us as well that someone put a video out on TikTok of that cap, and that just kind of blew up overnight." I guess "blew up overnight" is, um, one way to describe the virality of this unfortunate mix-up. 

Interesting word choices aside, this seems to check out, considering the University's official site has several apparel offerings, all sans offensive acronyms. Prep Sportswear, the shop that featured the merch, is user-generated, meaning anyone could have created the items in question. It's worth mentioning that Mashable's team said they tried to create their own college store on the site, they received an error message: "We do not take new store requests for U.S. colleges." the plot thickens ... 

Concordia University officials reached out to Prep Sportswear in light of this unwanted internet attention, asking them to remove the items. Although the acronym listings no longer seem to be available for purchase on the site, they live on in the form of teaser images, which when clicked, lead to more G-rated items. 

"We're proud of our athletes and our athletic program," Liljegren added of the incident. "We take pride in raising young men and women in service to Christ. And for this to happen was just really disappointing."

Moral of the story? Don't trust everything you read on the internet -- especially if it's a university sweatshirt printed with "CUM." 

For more cursed stories from the annals of the internet, follow Carly on Instagram @HuntressThompson_ and on Twitter @TennesAnyone.