Maybe not the thread for this so feel free to direct me elsewhere, but has anybody on here discussed the genuinely awful job Bauer has done with the team merch and jerseys for this tournament?
Getting the chance to fly out for the Quarter and Semi finals, thought I should try and pickup a jersey ahead of time. Shocked at how bad the options and quality are. Yesterday I hit up Adrenaline, Pro Hockey Life, 2 Team Town Sports, and 2 Sportcheks, and on the Hockey Canada online store to see what I could find so this is a problem across the board and not one of specific selection.
The main option is the "Semi-Pro" jersey which was $400 most places, made with the roughest material you've ever felt and only had the subjectively bad black leaf red available. The step down "Replica" came in at $150 without a name bar but was a completely different and cheaper material that looks completely different. Both were horrible sizing, arm numbers were glued on no stitched, and the selection was just shocking.
This is Team Canada, how can it possibly be acceptable that they wouldn't make the whole roster available to purchase? Half these stores have name bar pressing tools, they couldn't have shipped separate name bars and let people pick? Even at the insane price I was fully prepared to grab a Celebrini or someone obscure and fun (Wilson would go hard). Instead the only options are Crosby, McDavid, Mackinnon, Makar, Poulin.
Sure, you hit the "big" names, but that's still absolutely ridiculous to me that for the biggest best on best tournament in over a decade you choose to cheap out. You can tell they're aware that it's bad as well because ever other ad on instagram for me right now is some Bauer account video saying "No jersey? No problem! We have T-Shirts!" (again with only a handful of names available).
Feel like I could rant about jerseys all day (screw you Fanatics) and how even at Flames games I've noticed a boom in knock off jerseys in the crowds simply because they're more affordable and of basically the same quality.
At this point I'm far more likely to rock my Canada Spengler Cup J or hit up Marketplace and find a retro Canada for my trip for a fraction of the price and dramatically better quality. It's genuinely crazy to me that Bauer would cheap out with these low quality and limited options, hate to see it.
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