This year, for the first time in franchise history, the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl. To say that Philly fans are excited is an understatement that borders on absurdity. They’re just not excited—they’re freaking right the hell out, and they’re hungry to get their hands on some gear that’ll let them celebrate and commemorate the occasion. We’re not talking about anything crazy, though. Just tees, jackets, and the like. Simple, right? Not even close.
For one thing, most of those products don’t even exist yet. Some are pre-made for players and retailers, but the vast majority still need to be manufactured. “It’s enormously daunting,” explains Raphael Peck, president of Fanatics Brands, which is the exclusive producer of all that gear that fans will be clamoring for. “Let me put ‘daunting’ in perspective for you: We had to pre-position 3.2 million units of product. That’s fleece, that’s T-shirts, that’s creepers and onesies—everything except hard goods and headwear. It’s 3.2 million units at 75 manufacturers ready to go after the game and put those units out in the marketplace.”
Speed is the name of the game here. As Peck notes, the Super Bowl is what folks in the industry refer to as a “hot market,” otherwise known as one of the biggest merchandising moments of the year. “The way to think about it, statistically, is that in the first three days you’ll sell 50 percent of your demand,” he says. “Within the first week, you’ve almost got 75 percent of your demand. That’s how quickly it comes, and that’s what makes it fun—and incredibly challenging. Because everybody wants all of their product now so they can maximize the emotional high of the fans.”
In practice, that means that all (or almost all) of those Eagles tees and fleeces and onesies need to be produced within the week following the game, with the bulk being made in the first 48 hours. Couple that with the fact that, for the first time in history, there’s only one vendor making all those products (as opposed to upwards of 20 in the past) and you’ve got a recipe for some stressful days and nights. “Let’s just say the last three weeks haven’t been the easiest of my career,” Pecks says, laughing.
Despite the stress, Peck and the folks at Fanatics are feeling good about this moment in the world of football fandom. That’s because they’re proud of what they’re putting into the marketplace. For one thing, they made a special “Podium Jacket,” that Eagles QB Nick Foles wore after the game, and is now available to fans. Plus, the Eagles shirts that are being made right now aren’t your run-of-the-mill tees. Instead, they’re made from a special textile that is meant to pop on television (all the better for post-game press conferences) and designed to fit and feel better than what most fans are used to from team merch. “It’s really thought out. It’s not a junky T-shirt,” says Peck. Now he just needs to make a few million more of them.
Eagles fans can but the whole collection of championship merch here.