MADISON- Already regarded as one of country’s top minor league franchises when it comes to merchandise sales and name recognition, the Rocket City Trash Pandas can add an additional significant moniker as the Double A team became the first organization to launch international orders through Shopify, the e-commerce retailer of Minor League Baseball (MILB).

“Obviously, merchandise has been our homerun hitter since we unveiled our team name and logo in 2018,” said team owner and CEO Ralph Nelson. “The opportunity now to welcome international orders will only help us expand the Trash Pandas name across the globe.”

The MILB recently instituted a process for international online orders that was first rolled out to the Trash Pandas a week ago. The new team, which hasn’t even played a game in its inaugural season, were given the first rights to the new process after already accepting orders from the likes of United Kingdom, Austria and Australia within the first 24 hours international online purchases were made available.

The online order process is now made available to all minor league teams as the Trash Pandas were first chosen to officially dip into the online purchasing process.

“We know the Trash Pandas have been taking international orders and we finally have an integration to simplify the process,” said Taja Brown, MILB’s E-Commerce Coordinator. “We wanted to push it out to the Trash Pandas first.”

With on-line orders, local merchandise sales and season ticket sale packages, the Trash Pandas have already hit the $2.5-million in merchandise sales since launching its line of merchandise in Oct., 2018. The amazing feat of the merchandise sales is even more astounding to officials in the MILB since the team hasn’t even hit the diamond for action and is waiting for the word to begin its 2020 season schedule upon the end of the hold on play due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Trash Pandas currently operate two local stores for merchandise sales- The Emporium at Bridge Street and The Junkyard at Toyota Field.

Online orders can be made through shoptrashpandas.com