It was surely a strange sight to see—an enormous garden gnome fashioned entirely out of foam, that is—as it made its appearance amongst the hustle and bustle of students on OSU campus Jan. 4.

The “foam gnome” was designed in New York City for the sole purpose of traveling across the nation to promote the new A&E reality show “Shipping Wars.” The figure traveled all over the United States before its premiere date on Tuesday, Jan. 10.

The premise of the reality show is to provide audiences with a glimpse of the aggressively competitive field of independent moving.

A recent A&E press release described the show as a 10-episode series of half-hour segments that “follows teams of independent shippers bidding for the chance to transport the unshippable.” How does it work?

The first step of the process is to watch the bidding as it happens on the online auction house, uShip. This website is a popular auction house where independent truckers bid on contracts. The company that bids the lowest price to ship these items gets the delivery assignment. The process happens very quickly and often leaves truckers in the dust because bidding only lasts for a few minutes.

“We’re going just about everywhere with ‘Gnomie,’” said one of the transporters of the massive gnome, 27-year-old Jonathan Cook. “We’ll eventually end up back in New York, but first we’ll be stopping by Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati – you name it.”

Cook is responsible not only for the transportation of the smiling, bearded figure, but is also the main promoter of the show.

“I’ve been actively using Twitter to keep people updated on our location so they can come see this thing,” he said.

Along with his fellow crew of transporters, 27-year-old Angus Young and 24-year-old “T-bone,” the group drove around and displayed the gnome in many different campus hotspots on the trailer of their red pickup, including popular walkways such as 13th and High and the Panera Bread at the corner of High and 11th.

Many students were seen snapping photos and pointing at the monumental object as it made its rounds. Others gazed at it in a perplexed silence.

UWeekly caught up with Esper Wadih, OSU sophomore and biomedical engineering major, as he snapped a photo on his cell phone of the truck and its load Wednesday afternoon.

“I hadn’t heard anything about the show until now,” he said, reading off the air date from the side of the truck. “But now that I know what it is, I’ll be sure to watch it. This is just awesome.”

Some Buckeyes might have missed spotting the giant gnome, but no one has to miss the chance to see the rest of the bizarre, oversized cargo. “Shipping Wars” will be shown at 9 p.m. every Tuesday night on A&E.