dailyloe.com – The San Francisco Giants unveiled a new black jersey over a month ago, but fans have been largely unable to purchase it online. The issue stems from supply problems at Fanatics, the official merchandise partner for Major League Baseball. Fanatics operates the online shop for the league and all its teams under a ten-year deal.
This exclusivity makes the company the sole target for fan complaints about errors and issues. A consistent lack of supply to meet fan demand is a top complaint across many sports. The problem has proven true this spring regarding the new Giants jerseys.
The Giants officially revealed their ‘Gigantes’ black jerseys on March 18. This was one week before their season opener against the New York Yankees on Netflix. The jersey was created to celebrate the franchise’s rich Latino heritage. Promotional materials centered on Giants players from Latin America like Rafael Devers and Willy Adames.
Once available, the online team store offered only two player jerseys: Devers and Korean outfielder Jung Hoo Lee. A blank Gigantes jersey was also an option. Nearly every Devers and blank option sold out online within two days of the unveiling. The online store ran out of those options completely shortly after that.
A month later, jersey availability for the new uniform is severely limited. Only a few options for Jung Hoo Lee in adult sizes remain online. These include a men’s small and 4XL stadium jersey for $199.99. A women’s small replica jersey for $149.99 is also listed.
Two youth jerseys for Lee and a blank one are also still available. The lack of options has left fans in a difficult position. This issue is not solely tied to the new Gigantes jersey.
SFGATE analyzed jersey options on the Fanatics-run MLBShop.com for all 30 teams. The analysis was conducted on Tuesday afternoon. It included adult sizes, youth sizes, throwbacks, and fashion uniforms.
The San Francisco Giants had 74 total jersey options available at that time. This number ranks the team 21st out of the 30 MLB teams. Some teams had significantly more options for fans to purchase.
