Baby, It’s Warm Inside

Construction workers, businessmen, aspiring models and your average straphangers flowed into the Sports Illustrated Swim City tent on Herald square as models like Chrissy Teigan, Ariel Meredith, Kelly Roheback and dozens of others brought some much needed heat to New York City on Tuesday.

The event, themed “America the beautiful,” centered on the release of Sports Illustrated 2015 Swimsuit Issue. With so many fans lining up to interact with the models the mood was set.

“It’s always good to see how the fans react to the swimsuit issue,” said Ariel Meredith, the supermodel who recently got engaged to New York Giants Wide Receiver Hakeem Nicks. “It is so fun to see their excitement because it gets us models excited and more enthusiastic for events like these.”

The enthusiasm was there, not just with the models but ALSO with the fans, who surprisingly were mostly male, as they interacted with the models through photo-booths, autographs and even a game of Connect Four.

“How often can you say you were this close to a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model?” said Phil Ellison, 45, a native New Yorker, who just finished playing a round of the game with model Sarah Sampaio. “Playing Connect Four with one of them is a once in a lifetime opportunity, there was no way I could miss this.”

But it wasn’t just residents of the five boroughs flocking in, but also fans from all over world.

“We wanted to see and meet some of our favorite models,” said Ingrid Bergendahl, 22, who arrived, with her twin sister Cecilia, from Denmark just a few days before to come to this event. “We’re big fans of Gigi Hadid and Chanel Iman and really hope to meet them.”

Although there is so much love coming from the fans, for these models this is still a job, and there were moments of concern about their photographs.

“You don’t know how the photos are going to look and its nerve wracking,” said Meredith, who is in her fifth swimsuit issue. “When you finally see the finished product it’s such a wonderful feeling, such a relief.”

One thing is for sure, these models were ready to enjoy this event just as much as the fans were, and after spending months together on the road its understandable to see them just bask in the reward of admiration.

“Come on guys, let’s get these magazines signed Let’s have some fun!” yelled out Roheback to fans around her. “Seriously, this is a really good time just to have fun with the people who really appreciate what you do.”

It was a good way to thaw out.