Wearing the local sports team’s jersey is the perfect way to endear yourself to a regional crowd, but K-pop girl group STAYC was involved in a bit of a wardrobe mix-up during its show in Dallas last Thursday.
Per the New York Times, STAYC’s members have been wearing the uniforms of various sports teams during the American leg of their ‘Teenfresh’ world tour, wearing Bears and Bulls kits while performing in Chicago and Yankees and Mets gear during their stop in Brooklyn.
While four members of the band got it right in their show in Texas and donned Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks attire, there was a swing and a miss on the baseball front as two members’ attempt to blend in with the local audience went slightly awry.
It appears as though the intention was to shout-out the Texas Rangers, who are heading to their first World Series since 2011 after defeating their state rivals, the Houston Astros, in seven games in the American League Championship Series.
However, according to photos posted on social media, two members of the group, Sumin and Isa, took to the stage wearing the shirts of the Rangers soccer team, based in Glasgow, Scotland – over 4,000 miles away.
The retro shirts in question are from the 1996/97 season, which Rangers fans will look back upon fondly, as the team won both the Scottish Premiership and the League Cup that year.
While the innocent mistake was unexpected, and there was certainly no prior existing connection between STAYC and the Scottish club, the incident seems to have gone down well amongst Rangers fans online.
The accidental wardrobe snafu is not the first link between K-pop and a Glaswegian soccer side. The jersey of Rangers’ bitter rival, Celtic, made an appearance during boy band Stray Kids’ ‘My Piece’ music video in 2018.
STAYC – an acronym for ‘Star to a Young Culture’ – debuted in 2020 and consists of six members: Sumin, Sieun, Isa, Seeun, Yoon and J. The group broke into the top 10 of the US charts in March with its single ‘Run2U,’ while its Teenfresh EP reached 14th on the Album charts.