We believe transparency is one of the most important topics we should provide to fans and collectors. Relic cards have long been asked for by our fans and we've labored over providing them. With the NWSL it has been a struggle due to a few compounding factors that we don't need to discuss.
The primary reason we have not done any Relic cards in our NWSL offering until now is that verifiable game used materials have been very difficult to acquire. We at Parkside believe that the path from player to card needs to be 100% verifiable in order for us to make a card that says "Game Used" or "Player Worn." Sincerely, we don't even consider the tag "Player Worn" something worth our time or your hard earned money.
Today, we have acquired a small selection of game used gear from the 2021 season through the equipment manager of the Washington Spirit. The Washington Spirit went on to have a storybook season claiming the NWSL Championship. Below is a picture of the material we made our first NWSL Relic card with.
With any Relic card made moving forward you should expect and image of the materials before it is sent into the trading card production. We at Parkside will painstakingly attempt to photo match the garment to a game. The attached photo of game used shorts, was tendered to Parkside directly from the team. To the best of our knowledge it appears these shorts were worn during the Oct 31, 2021 match with the Houston Dash visiting the Washington Spirit at Audi Field. In this match the wearer of these shorts scored the game's only goal in the 76th minute. We believe, but cannot confirm, the player gave her jersey to a fan post game.
Introducing our first NWSL Relic Card - the 2023 NWSL Collection Trinity Rodman Rewind Relic Card. This card is limited to 100 and can be found in both the hobby and retail packs of our 2023 NWSL Collection Vol. 1