Lionel Messi’s historic signing and upcoming debut with Inter Miami has fans clamoring to own a piece of black and pink memorabilia to rep the all-time great player. It’s creating a huge headache for merchandise manufacturers and sellers.
“Demand for the jersey has been truly unprecedented,” Adidas senior director of soccer Tor Southard told media on Thursday. “I’ve been with the brand for a long time, and I’ve never seen our brand mobilize around a project across so many functions to bring product to market so quickly.”
Though the German sportswear supplier is doing all it can to meet the legions of Messi supporters, the supply chain takes time.
Billy Lalor — senior director of merchandising at Sports Endeavors, which owns retailer soccer.com — says that a product like this would typically take six months to manufacture and send to market, but Adidas is speeding up the process to get it delivered in three months. Consumers who order a Messi jersey — replica or authentic — now can expect to receive it in mid-October.
“The backorder situation is a result of the time needed to meet demand that is 25 times greater than it otherwise would have been had Messi not moved to Inter Miami,” Lalor told Front Office Sports.
Even Adidas can’t keep up: It is currently only preselling the jersey in its app — a clever ploy for downloads.
“Our goal is simple: Every single fan who wants a jersey should be able to get a jersey,” says Southard.
Ultimately, it’s a great problem to have and is creating more business opportunities in the interim.
Lalor says that Sports Endeavors sold out six months of Inter Miami stock — including blank jerseys — in 24 hours; a lucky few may have been able to make a custom Messi shirt before the supply disappeared.
It forced the company “to scramble to figure out how much more to get and when we could get it,” including some quick-turn, Miami-themed Messi T-shirts created by Adidas.
The brand itself has set up a pop-up shop in Miami to exclusively sell Messi merchandise — though that too could sell out ahead of the GOAT’s Friday debut.
Even if it takes time, Messi’s move away from Europe’s Big Five — a usual best-seller for retailers — should pay off in the long run.
“This will surely have a positive effect on our bottom line,” Lalor says. “We will lose some sales from his former team, Paris Saint-Germain, but those will be more than offset by the increases in sales of Inter Miami and all MLS teams. Our margins on all of these products are similar, so the bottom-line increase comes from the top-line sales increase.”
