How did sports pre-wrap become a fashion statement?

by Karen Snyder
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN reprinted with permission

“Pre-wrap is cool for sure!” said 17-year-old soccer player and Century High School senior Amanda Joy Smith, sporting a pre-wrap headband.

So how did prosaic pre-wrap, created for sports medicine to serve as a soft, filmy barrier between skin and sticky athletic tape, attain cool-for-sure, fashion-statement status among teen and preteen female athletes?
Details are as gossamer as the product, but Teresa Smolinski of Glastonbury, Conn., and Raymond Rehbein of Rochester have a theory.

“I think it started when somebody dug into a sports medicine bag and found a substitute for a forgotten headband,” said Smolinski, the mother of 16-year-old entrepreneur Tessa Smolinski, who, four years ago, launched a pre-wrap e-business — pre-wrap.com.

“One girl one time probably tied her hair back with pre-wrap. Then more tried it and the trend grew,” said Rehbein, a salesman at Play It Again Sports.

Primeval pre-wrap came in two hues, tan and black. And then manufacturers began expanding their pre-wrap palettes. Lime-green debuted recently at pre-wrap.com, whose hottest seller is the Rainbow Special, one roll each of the dozen colors available.

Katie Frischmann doesn’t remember when pre-wrap didn’t come in colors. The Century High School senior works at Play It Again and takes part in hockey, soccer and lacrosse, and she and Amanda Joy are teammates on a Rochester Youth Soccer Association squad called The Chill.

Katie started using pre-wrap for fashion’s sake when she was in sixth or seventh grade. She demonstrated how she makes a pre-wrap headband. She measured a length of pre-wrap around her neck, tore the tape, knotted its ends, rolled it into a thin band and pulled it up on her head.

“I use it all the time,” she said.

More than mere chic, pre-wrap upholds rules as well as hair. Several sports forbid hard headbands that might cause injuries.

Some girls tie up their sleeves with pre-wrap, which also makes pretty necklaces and bracelets — often in team colors.

The AAU Girls 12 & Under National Championship brought miles more pre-wrap to already plenty pre-wrapped Rochester. Lauren Crisler, who came from Philadelphia to play in the tournament “has extensive knowledge of pre-wrap,” said her father, John Crisler. “We have quite an inventory of pre-wrap in every color available.”

“In AAU, teams have to wear the color of their uniforms,” said Lauren, whose yellow pre-wrap headband fit the requirement.

Some people twist two colors together.

“Pink and blue are the prettiest colors,” said Mayo High School senior Elizabeth Joyce, and teammate of Katie and Amanda Joy on the Chill.

“Absolutely no pink!” said Amanda Joy. Black is her pre-wrap favorite.

“I like pink and purple,” said Chill player Anna DiCecco, a senior at Lourdes High School.

Pre-wrap is daintier than duct tape but as versatile. Here are some pre-wrap applications:

• Used under skates, ski boots and other footwear, pre-wrap helps prevent blisters.

• Pre-wrap guards shins from shin guards.

• Pre-wrap holds up spaniels’ (and other breeds’) floppy ears.

• Wrapped around dogs’ paws, it helps keep dogs’ boots from slipping off.

• Fly tyers use pre-wrap to make colorful fishing lures.

• “Pre-wrap is a great wrap for tendinitis and Osgood-Schlatter disease,” said an AAU girls basketball coach. “Because of its flexibility, it’s better than many devices you can buy.”