Women whose TV screens come between them and UF's star quarterback now have one way to get closer to the action - Tim Tebow thongs.
TeeBow's, fashioned with the Heisman Trophy winner in mind, come in three styles, including a thong with the number 15 written on a football.
"We thought it would be a cute idea," said Samantha Smith, a UF senior and creator of TeeBow's."It's not meant to offend anyone or get Tim Tebow upset"
Before starting TeeBows.com in December, Smith, 21, along with family and friends, sold the underwear on West University Avenue before football games during the 2008 season.
She said she came up with the idea for TeeBow's when one of her friends noticed her thong was hanging out.
When Smith made a joke about her "t-bow," referring to the bow on her thong, she thought Tebow-tributed underwear might be popular among adoring fans.
The Web site ran into copyright infringement trouble in April when the Collegiate Licensing Company, which partners with UF, sent Web site creator Kris Bates a cease-and-desist letter for the Web site's photo of Tebow. Due to NCAA licensing laws, Tebow's photo cannot be printed or sold.
Bates received an additional letter from UF asking him to remove the official UF logo to keep from violating copyright laws.
Following the publicity from the cease-and-desist letters and an advertisement on digg.com, the Web site went from six visits a day to about 23,000 daily visits. The $6 thongs are only available for purchase on TeeBows.com, Bates said.
Because Bates doesn't think TeeBow's will be as popular after the quarterback graduates, he said they will most likely not continue to sell them.
"If the Tebow family called and asked us to stop selling them, we would probably take it down," Bates said. "The truth is, based on what I know about Tim, he's probably getting a chuckle out of this. If he is the guy we all think he is, he's taking it with a grain of salt."
