Notes: Detroit Lions’ collaborate with local apparel firm SMPLFD

For Detroit Lions fans who enjoy something out of the ordinary for their fan gear, the organization’s project with SMPLFD Printing Company in Detroit offered strikingly different options from the standard licensed NFL merchandise. Announced in late November, the collection was (and still is) an exclusive to the Stadium Collection shop inside Ford Field:

Unless you’ve been to the stadium to check out the line first-hand, the only way to really see what was in the collection was through posts by folks on social media. The information page on the Lions organization’s website doesn’t feature any pictures, but Creative Director Ashley Strauss had a number of really nice shots posted to Twitter. The stuff generally looked really cool and seemed like a nice way to support a partnership with a local business:

Unfortunately, the only place you could get it was at Ford Field’s shop, which according to a recent post by the media team is only has “limited quantities” remaining. However, we noticed a reply by SMPLFD co-founder Justin Fishaw on a rather nice all-in-one visual guide to the line showing every piece clearly (hat tip to MLive’s Kyle Meinke for leading me down that rabbit hole via RT). Someone asked Fishaw if you had to get these items from the stadium, and here was the answer:

So, there may be hope for the rest of us who aren’t able to physically get to Ford Field to check it out. The team and SMPLFD have already put a lot into this project, so it seems like a win-win to let the fans continue to show their love for the vintage 1990s look resurrected by the designers.

Now, on to the rest of today’s Notes:

• From ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Denver Broncos will honor the memory of former wide receiver Demaryius Thomas with a pre-game tribute and wear decals with Thomas’ jersey number 88 on Sunday against the Lions.

• On Saturday, NFL insider Tom Pelissero posted a story on NFL.com about locker room issues over in Jacksonville. An incident offered as an example of the troubles was about the frustrations of former Lions receiver Marvin Jones, who was a great teammate and community figure during his time in Detroit.

• Draft position watch: the head coach of the Houston Texans announced they are benching veteran quarterback Tyrod Taylor to start rookie David Mills for their remaining five games. The only wins for the Texans came with Taylor as the starter in Weeks 1 and 11; they did not win any of the seven games Mills started.

• Dannie Rogers with the Lions spoke to Broncos digital team reporter Sydney Jones about tomorrow’s game on this week’s “3 & Out” segment. The video was posted by the team to its YouTube account. Also posted to the team’s YouTube account yesterday was a recording of the OnePridecast with Dannie Rogers and Mike O’Hara, who were joined by tight end Brock Wright (in the last four minutes of the show).

• Speaking of Brock Wright, Dave Birkett from the Detroit Free Press interviewed the Lions tight end and came away with some wild stuff:

• Fox 2’s Dan Miller sat down with rookie linebacker Derrick Barnes to talk about the close games this season and the finish against Minnesota. Miller asked Barnes to walk us through his big stop on the two-point conversion in the team’s first win, and it’s something you won’t want to miss.