Barry Bonds walked right through the quad yesterday. Later Mike Bibby and Terrell Owens ate lunch in the University Union. It seems that professional athletes have swarmed to the campus and are flashing their names and numbers around.

All right, so obviously none of these star athletes have ever been on campus, but there are plenty of daytime Sacramento State students sporting their attire.

Professional athletes’ jerseys have become a mainstay of contemporary urban style and are a unique and colorful way to support the players who captivate us and the teams we support. Wearing one can be a statement of support for a certain favorite player or merely be a recognizable and fashionable splash to a wardrobe.

The amount of jerseys available for any given team or player can come close to double digits. Home, away, alternate, retro, reversible, authentic and replicas are all on the rack. Some of the most prominent players even have their college and high school uniforms marketed.

Around Sacramento, hometown fans of the local NBA franchise support the Sacramento Kings by wearing the purple and black jerseys of their favorite hometown heroes. This season, the hottest jersey is that of the new guy in town, Ron Artest’s No. 93.

“He’s in very high demand right now,” said Andy Strohnyer, manager of Sports Fever in the Arden Fair mall. “We’ve been selling them so quickly that we just can’t keep them in stock.”

A second Sports Fever in the Arden Fair mall exclusively carries Kings products. At this location, the highest seller is a swingman jersey of point guard Mike Bibby.

“A swingman is patched or stitched on. It looks very much like an authentic,” said assistant manager Victor Mercado. “But it’s a jersey that the Kings will never wear. It’s purely made to look good.”

Getting the hottest players and the updated logos and colors is one way to go, while old-school throwbacks of legends of the game are just as popular. Popular culture and the media have had a tremendous impact on the sale and marketability of jerseys in the past decade as more and more are being featured by big name stars.

“The biggest influence on buyers is hip-hop videos,” Mercado said. “When rappers started wearing them, the market for them broke out-especially with the old time players.”

“It’s a classic, man,” said undeclared freshman Martin Esparza of his white and green Joe Namath throwback jersey. “And who else is going to have one like it?”

Many jerseys, however, don’t fall into any of the teams’ official colors or styles. Like the popular Bibby jersey, Mercado said, fashion drives much of the production and different styles, and colors have become more popular in recent years. Finding a red Kings or a green Los Angeles Lakers jersey is not uncommon.

“A lot of people will buy a certain color jersey just to match a pair of shoes,” Mercado said.

The biggest reason among buyers remains the desire to just support the team and the player. Sports Fever shopper Scott Allen is hunting for a Dwyane Wade jersey to complement his old school Charles Barkley throwback.

“I just like to represent for my favorite players,” Allen said. “And I like the Barkley jersey because he’s more significant now that he’s considered old-school.”

According to Brandweek.com, the Miami Heat guard has the top selling NBA jersey so far this year, supplanting last year’s titleholder, Lebron James.

Around Sac State, students wear the numbers and colors of their favorite team. As baseball season looms over springtime activities, Mercado said that popularity of the sport uniforms should steadily increase.

Psychology graduate Christina Fameli is ready for baseball season as she supports her beloved San Francisco Giants with a batting practice jersey.

“It’s all about Barry Bonds,” she said with a smile. “I’ve loved the Giants pretty much since I was born, and he’s the greatest ballplayer of our time.”

Josh Huggett can be reached at [email protected]