Des Moines, IA - Citing the purity of the game and the true roll of the ball, resident Iowa hipster Stephen Levinthal showed up for his recreation league soccer practice with an inflated pig's bladder, on Wednesday.

"Why, when you strike this spheroid, you will truly experience the game as it was meant to be played," stated Levinthal to his aghast teammates who had, for the last six months, studiously mocked and then ignored Levinthal's handlebar mustache.

"This is about playing the game to the standards of our original ancestors who played in actual boots on bogs and flooded fields like we have here," stated the wool clad Levinthal as his gesticulated towards the immaculately mowed field marked with pristine white lines.

Friends state that Levinthal's predilection towards vintage soccer went so far as him attempting to switch the team formation to a 1-1-8 and mandate that everyone take a halftime break for tea and absinthe.

"He works as a server architect for a company that does SAAS in the cloud," stated good friend and midfielder Heather Brohm. "But he acts like he is a coal miner in the 1800s. One time he even showed up wearing a hand painted bloused shirt tucked into bloused pants tucked into wool socks. I don't even know where to start."

Teammates indicate that the previous equipment changes hadn't impacted his performance, but that his commitment to wool clothing was going to to be problematic during the summer season.

"HE IS GOING TO DIE," stated good friend Gebrail Frimpong. "When the heat comes around? We will see how good his commitment is then."

The Nutmeg News will have more on this as Levinthal explains how his tendency towards radical veganism is not impacted by his usage of a pig bladder as a sporting implement given that he only uses found pig bladders from wild game.