Want to sleep — or just lounge — with the Savannah Bananas? Now you can with these jammies

Do fans of the Savannah Bananas dream of sugar plum fairies at Christmastime, or is it the team’s famous jitterbug-dancing first base coach that dances through their heads? Either way, this holiday season slumbering supporters can do their dreaming while wearing team colors.

Peaz N’ Carrots, the local apparel company founded by Isle of Hope resident Meg Goldberg, has created a line of Bananas-branded pajamas for kids and adults alike.

“We had in mind to do pajamas for a really long time, but we knew we wanted to do it right,” said Mandolyn Howard, merchandise coordinator for the Savannah Bananas. “So, when [Goldberg] came in and had actual samples, and she had really good fabrics and really good prints that we could offer our fans, we knew that she was the only one we could go with.”

Necessity is the mother of invention, after all...

Peaz N’ Carrots was founded in 2022 in response to Goldberg’s frustration over being unable to find high-quality coordinated clothing for her young twins Aksel and Bertie. But her desire to work with the Bananas began years earlier at the team’s inception, when she’d applied for a position in their events department. She didn’t get the job, but once she’d worked out all of the early kinks in her own upstart small business, she knew that she wanted to reach out to her favorite team once more.

“I brought the samples in, and they all flipped out,” Goldberg recalled of her first meeting with the Bananas merchandizing staff. “I feel like the prints are cool and cute, but when people see and feel the stuff, it’s when they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh!’”

Ultimately the team placed a large order, with a plan to release them to the public on Black Friday (they actually came out two days early, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving). In the intervening months, Goldberg was not only charged with putting together the inventory that the Bananas requested, but also with creating a product catalogue, including photographing the new pajamas.

“I got an Airbnb,” she recalled, noting that she brought in local photographer Michelle Holloway for the shoot. “I had two players come, one from the Bananas, one from the Party Animals.”

“These guys, they’re not only super-talented in the sport, they’re charismatic and talented in other ways,” Goldberg said of the players she had wearing her creations that day. “They’re entertainers and ballplayers at the same time. You can strike some guy out while on stilts? To me that takes more skill than playing in the major leagues.”

In the months since Peaz N’ Carrots and the Savannah Bananas have been collaborating, Goldberg has had the chance to get to know the team behind the team, through a hands-on approach that has seen her stopping by from time to time to ensure that everything is going smoothly. It’s not the kind of attention to detail that the international phenomenon gets from all of their vendors, but one which this local business is well-suited to deliver.

“Meg is a very unique individual,” said Bananas Vice President of Merchandise Eric Sundvold. “She brought us banana pudding once, just to check in and see how things are going. We don’t expect any of this from her, but she just gives that extra special push.”

He went on to say, “Local businesses have helped sustain the Savannah Bananas. So, when Meg comes in here and she brings us this unique thing that’s a great product and it’s done just a couple of miles down the road, and we can put a face to the product and all the stuff behind that product…We feel good about it. And I hope that our local fans feel good about it too, that we’re supporting a local business, their neighbor, our neighbor.”

For Goldberg, Peaz N’ Carrots is still a part-time gig, one that she does “five to nine” after her usual nine to five job is done for the day. In working with the Savannah Bananas, however, she’s knows that she’s one step closer to ditching her day job.

“Previously, working for designers and companies, I’m like, ‘Here’s a multimillion dollar idea that you’re not gonna give me any of that money for,’” Goldberg laughed. “But this is now mine. I’m excited to see what happens.

“If you really want to do something, you can do it,” she added. “It’s not gonna be easy, but you can do it.”

Find Peaz N’ Carrots Savannah Bananas-branded apparel at the team’s website https://shop.thesavannahbananas.com/ or at https://www.peazncarrots.com/ while supplies last.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah apparel designer launches Savannah Banana pajamas