By Jim Cavan

UNH’s Whittemore Center certainly won’t be devoid of heat when archrival Boston College arrives on March 5th for a weekend series against the Wildcats. But that isn’t stopping Dennis Randall from giving free hats to everyone in the arena.

For the fourth consecutive year Randall, who owns Warehouse Clothing Outlet in Portsmouth, will be handing out custom fleece garments to everyone in attendance. Sharing the fabric with UNH’s requisite Wildcat logo will be EARTHTEC, the name of Randall’s line of jackets and accessories that are made of recycled number one plastic bottles; twelve bottles, to be precise.

Launched a little over a year ago as a way of promoting his company’s erstwhile commitment to reducing their environmental impact, EARTHTEC has since made Randall a familiar figure in the local media, most recently earning him a lengthy segment on WMUR‘s New Hampshire Chronicle.

For Randall, forging a promotional partnership with UNH Athletics seemed like a no-brainer. “We were excited to be partnering with a school that had already proved it was committed to sustainability on every front,” says Randall. “Usually you see cheap disposable stuff handed out -- like towels and foam fingers -- that just end up in the landfill after the game. But with the eco-tec hats we fill like we’re providing a quality product to a clientele that really gets it and appreciates it.”

The promotions effort started back in 2007, when Randall and Amber Radovic, then head of promotions for UNH Athletics, decided to take the notion of freebies in a new, and decidedly green, direction. “I had known for a while it would be a great idea to tap into the UNH market,” says Randall, whose main company, Trailtex, services a number of name-brand clothing providers nationwide. “So the idea was to get them into as many hands as possible, and after meeting with a number of people involved in UNH’s sustainability efforts, we saw that football and hockey games could be the perfect outlet.”

After switching to free scarves in 2008, Randall has since gone back to handing out the hats, finding that they seemed to be a bigger hit with fans.

So whether March 5th finds you looking for a quick warm up after an icy trudge across campus, or simply in need of a hat to match the blue and white jersey, Dennis Randall and the folks at Warehouse Clothing Outlet got you covered.