Those retro All-Star jerseys were a record-setting hit

CHICAGO, IL - JULY 7: (L-R) Chicago Cubs National League All Stars, Ben Zobrist #18, Addison Russell #27, Dexter Fowler #24, Kris Bryant #17, Jake Arrieta #49, Jon Lester #34 and Anthony Rizzo #44 pose for a photo with their All Star jersey's before the game against the Atlanta Braves on July 7, 2016 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by David Banks/Getty Images) — (Photo by David Banks/Getty Images)

If you loved those retro brown-and-gold batting practice jerseys for the recent All-Star Game, you are definitely not alone. ESPN’s Darren Rovell has reported that the 2016 All-Star Game FanFest sold more merchandise than any other in the past 16 years (when they started tracking such things).

Tweets like the one below may have provided a clue this would happen. David Ortiz jerseys were sold out before the actual game had taken place.

ASG vendors completely sold-out of Ortiz jerseys. Can't custom make em onsite either, ran out of 3's and 4's and letters. Game is tomorrow.

— Gary Striewski (@garystriewski) July 11, 2016

According to Rovell, Ortiz jerseys wasn’t the only ones that were flying off the shelves.

So many locals wanted replicas of Padres first baseman Wil Myers’ batting practice jersey that Majestic had to fly in more No. 4s in the suitcases of their arriving executives.

Demand like that is what pushed 2016’s profits beyond 2015’s by 36%, and MLB’s VP of Consumer Products, who spoke to Rovell, was completely surprised.

“We candidly didn’t think sales would be like this,” said Adam Blinderman, MLB’s vice president of consumer products. “We look at the market, the fan base and how a team is playing, and we thought San Diego would sell like Cincinnati did last year.”

Blinderman also said that the interactivity of the FanFest space helped push sales, which allowed fans to customize not just jerseys, but socks from Stance and hats from New Era.

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While it’s true that the Cincinnati Reds and the San Diego Padres are on the same futility level, a few things happened to make this year’s merchandise much more popular than last year’s. San Diego obviously went crazy for Wil Myers, a young and talented player who was the Padres’ only representative to the All-Star Game and a participant in the Home Run Derby. Then there’s David Ortiz’s impending retirement, which propelled him to the top of the list of most popular jerseys of 2016. That popularity obviously continued with his All-Star Game jersey.

But a lot of the merchandise sales have to do with that jersey design, which pays tribute to the great Padres uniforms of the 70s. It’s the most striking All-Star jersey design in years. Try to remember what the jerseys for 2015 or 2014 looked like. If you’re remembering nothing, that’s about right. But 2016’s jersey design draws on nostalgia to become instantly memorable. This is the jersey we’ll be measuring all future All-Star Game jerseys against for years to come.

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