[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

My argument against the long box/tube being fabric for bumpers is FIRST hasn't been rolling the cloth that is given to the rookie teams each year. They fold it and put it in the rookie tote, so why would that change this year if they were giving it to everybody?

It's a legitimate argument, but perhaps the reason is that the number of rookie teams is just a small fraction of the number of total teams. When a process scales up, it can be the case that alternative logistics is more efficient/cheaper. Fabric suppliers have logistics to produce orders for arbitrary lengths on rolls for shipping efficiently. For rookie only, perhaps FIRST ordered full bolts and did their own cutting/folding for a the smaller number of rookies.