Leicester City has grabbed headlines across
the globe after arguably pulling off the most remarkable triumph in
team sports history by claiming the English Premier League title on Monday. Yet, fans, old and new, looking to show their support for the fairytale side are likely to be in for disappointment.
Residents of the nondescript city in England’s
East Midlands will have awakened on Tuesday still pinching themselves
after their local team pulled off a 5,000-1 triumph
to seal the first championship in its 132-year history. And they will
have been confronted not just by the signs of the huge party that
unfolded the night before, but by all the empty racks where Leicester
shirts once hung.
In local sports stores, Leicester City’s jerseys this season have been sold out for more than three months
as fans got swept up in the Cinderella story. A club that was in the
third tier of English soccer just seven years ago and that looked
certain to be demoted from the Premier League last season has claimed
the ultimate prize in soccer’s richest league.
David Chatwani, who runs Leicester City’s official sports store partner, JC Sports, told the Leicester Mercury
in March that they had sold 3,000 shirts this season, roughly twice the
number sold in the last campaign, when the team needed a great escape
to avoid the drop. Meanwhile, sales for the jerseys of the traditional
big clubs, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea, have dropped
significantly as fans latch on to their home team.
It is clear that the triumph was as unexpected
for retailers and the team’s jersey manufacturer, Puma, as it was for
the soccer pundits, many of whom had tipped the club to be sent back to
the second-tier championship.
And it is not just in Leicester where where
the team’s jerseys are in short supply. In Thailand, the home of the
club’s owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, head of duty-free magnate King
Power, there are also reports of Leicester shirts having been long since
sold out. In a part of the world where the likes of Liverpool and
Manchester United have long reigned supreme, Leicester is making
its mark.
It is a similar story of limited supply and
growing interest in the United States, with little distribution for
merchandise. At an Upper 90 soccer store in New York City, that issue
had to be partially resolved by a very personal delivery of jerseys.
Raluca Gold-Fuchs, the wife of Leicester City
bargain-signing left back Christian Fuchs, resides in New York and heads
event-management company RA Entertainment. When walking into Upper 90’s
Manhattan store last December, a time when many were still struggling
to take Leicester’s title bid seriously, she made a discovery she felt
needed to be corrected.
“Christian Fuchs’ wife came in and she said,
‘Why don’t you have any Leicester City shirts?’ And she said, ‘I’ll
bring you back some,’ ” recalls Robbie Baum, manager of the store’s
Brooklyn branch. “The team were on a break and Christian actually came
to the Manhattan store and dropped off a bunch of both the home and away
kits for us. It was enough that I think each store got a couple of each
sizes, a few dozen in total. At this point, we’ve totally sold out.”
With just two weeks left in the season, there is no prospect for more of the jerseys being produced anytime soon.
“Puma didn’t exactly foresee them having the
season that they did, so they didn’t produce a whole lot of them, as far
as I understand it,” Baum said. “Puma’s completely out of it.”
Next season, though, promises to be a very
different story. Once a poor relation to the brand’s other club partners
such as Arsenal and German big hitters Borussia Dortmund, Leicester’s
shirts for next season have already been teased, while Puma’s social
media feeds have been making the most of their link to the biggest story
in the sports world.
The club has already made plans to capitalize
on its newfound fame, too. In March, it was announced that Leicester
City will take part in the glamorous preseason competition, primarily
based in the U.S., the International Champions Cup, when they take on
French champions Paris Saint-Germain in Los Angeles.
And next season, the club will be boosted by
debuting in the biggest club competition on the planet, the Champions
League, when their shirts line up alongside the likes of European giants
Barcelona and Real Madrid.
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