🏆 Pop-Tarts Bowl trophy: Behind the scenes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Shortly after Iowa State 's win in the 2024 Pop-Tarts Bowl, Cyclones receiver Jaylin Noel, in a celebratory mood, went to grab the game's trophy to lug it home. But this trophy is different from any other and, as such, required Josh Price, an engineer who helped build the thing, to deliver some safety instructions. Noel wasn't interested. "He was like, 'It's a freakin' toaster, man,' and ran out of the room," Price said. With that, Price couldn't argue. Because the Pop-Tarts Bowl trophy is indeed a freakin' toaster. The Pop-Tarts Bowl debuted as a genuine sports phenomenon in 2023, when the big shiny trophy -- a football with slots holding fake Pop-Tarts -- was unveiled, or rather, unwrapped. People went nuts, like they do for everything about this game, from the edible mascots to this year's helmets with sprinkles sprinkled in the stripes . In the week after the Pop-Tarts Bowl in 2023, Kellogg's sold 22 million more Pop-Tarts than they had the week before the game. "I'm not going to pretend that this was the plan the whole time, but I think we had the right bones in place because we had the right approach," said Matt Repchak, the chief marketing officer at Florida Citrus Sports, which operates the bowl along with the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl. "We're not the Rose Bowl, we're not one of the biggest games in the college football calendar year, but we're always going to be fun to watch." But after the trophy reveal, there was one constant question. And when you're a bowl geared around social interaction, you pay attention to the internet's questions. "The first question people asked was, 'Is it a real functional toaster?' And that persisted," Repchak said. "We didn't anticipate the lightning in a bottle that that brand created." In 2023, the trophy was not a functional toaster. So, the bowl set out to fix that problem. Pop-Tarts, naturally, had a relationship with a giant appliance maker, GE Appliances, which makes toasters. So, in the fall of 2024, when discussions went from "what if" to "could we?" they recommended the company's FirstBuild lab on the University of Louisville campus, a microfactory where consumer appliances are dreamed into existence. It was about six weeks to game time. No one knew if it was possible, but if it was possible, they came to the right place, a laboratory with all the tools possible to create gadgets and gizmos: 3D printers, fabrication machines, lasers, and just the right number of geeks excited to take on any challenges, even if it's a football trophy meant to warm hearts and Pop-Tarts. That's where Price entered the picture. By day, he's one of those makers who works for FirstBuild, which has produced appliances such as the Opal countertop nugget ice maker. Normally, the team in Louisville is trying to concoct things that land in consumers' kitchens, like their current project, an appliance that automatically feeds your sourdough starter , or a $479...

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