Fanatics didn’t see this Super Bowl 2026 matchup coming, and it’s costing the sports merchandise giant.
The company offered a mea culpa Monday night on X since it has not kept up with the demand for Super Bowl-themed Patriots and Seahawks jerseys, as it did not plan for the teams’ respective successes.
Fanatics also defended itself against criticism of the quality of the alternate jerseys.
“NFL fans, we’ve seen your jersey feedback, and we take it very seriously. We’ve let Patriots and Seahawks fans down with product availability – we own that and we are sorry,” the company posted.
“This Super Bowl matchup has created unprecedented challenges for us because of the massive surge in demand we saw from Patriots and Seahawks fans. Both teams went from missing the playoffs last season to being in the Super Bowl, an incredibly rare occurrence that led to these two fanbases buying nearly 400% more jerseys since Thanksgiving vs. last year.
“Even though we ordered substantially more jerseys for these teams than ever before, we’ve struggled to meet the overwhelming demand to keep team color jerseys in stock, which we know is your expectation. As sports fans, we understand your frustration and we will work tirelessly to be better.”
The NFL and Fanatics agreed to a 10-year partnership in 2018 to make the latter the exclusive provider of fan wear, including jerseys, while Nike would remain the supplier for teams’ jerseys.
This is now, at least, the second time Fanatics has come under fire for a lack of merchandise ahead of the NFL’s biggest game, with SFgate.com reporting two years ago that the company ran out of white 49ers jerseys ahead of their crushing overtime loss to the Chiefs.
While it’s true that most did not have this Patriots-Seahawks clash in Super Bowl 2026 on their bingo cards entering the season, this is surely not the type of PR both Fanatics and the NFL want this week.
These are the types of situations that surely can be mentioned when that contract expires.
Not helping Fanatics’ cause is that fans have taken to social media to vent about the quality of the alternate jerseys, plus other Fanatics merchandise.
The hashtag #EndFanatics has been used by plenty of irritated folks, who have shared photos of their merchandise.
Fanatics pushed back against those narratives.
“We are bringing in more team color jerseys daily and offering alternative options in the meantime. We’ve heard questions about the quality of these alternate jerseys and can assure you that, despite some unflattering photos, these jerseys are identical to the standard Nike replica ‘Game’ jersey – one of the highest consumer-rated items we carry built on the core template that has been unchanged since Nike took over NFL jerseys in 2012,” Fanatics said in its lengthy X post. “That said, if you’ve ordered any product that you’re not fully satisfied with, including one of these alternate jerseys, it can always be returned free of charge via the Fanatics app – part of our long-standing return policy. Fans who purchased online via NFL Shop or the Patriots/Seahawks team stores can do the same.”
Fanatics previously dealt with customer complaints regarding its rollout of MLB merchandise, so much so that CEO Michael Rubin had to speak out.
“We’ve purely been doing exactly as we’re told — we’ve been told we’ve done everything exactly right — and we’re getting the s–t kicked out of ourselves every day right now,” Rubin said, per The Athletic. “That’s not fun. Normally when I get beat up it’s because I actually did something wrong.”
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