Inter Miami F Lionel Messi’s pink No. 10 jersey is the "hottest piece of sports merchandise on the planet,” according to a front-page piece by Draper & Smith of the N.Y. TIMES. Within a couple of days of Messi’s announcing his intention to join the club, Adidas had received "almost 500,000 requests from stores and suppliers for jerseys in Miami’s soft, electric pink." The company "placed orders for vast rolls of the pink fabric needed to make them within 24 hours of his interview on Spanish television in the first week of June," but would "not start selling official Messi jerseys until his contract was formally signed on July 15." Despite all of Adidas’s attempts to get its official Messi jerseys "into stores as quickly as possible," the "clamor for them -- any version of them -- has proved so great that counterfeits have flooded the global market to meet the shortfall." The company has "now largely caught up with the backlog of orders," but it is "still selling jerseys far faster than it can produce them, and not just in the United States." Official sales have "surpassed every benchmark Adidas could have imagined." Inter Miami is now the "best-selling Adidas soccer jersey in North America, ahead of all five of the storied European clubs that the brand traditionally regards as the crown jewels" of its portfolio: Premier League's Manchester United and Arsenal, LaLiga's Real Madrid, Serie A's Juventus, and Bundesliga's Bayern Munich. Since July, Fanatics, which "dominates sports apparel" in the U.S., has "sold more Messi jerseys than for any other soccer player, and any athlete at all" except Eagles QB Jalen Hurts (N.Y. TIMES, 10/24).
Inter Miami is now the best-selling Adidas soccer jersey in North America, ahead of other European clubs in the company's portfolioGetty Images
