Jubilant hockey fans struggle to find Team USA jerseys in stock… because Nike ‘thought Canada was going to win gold’

Team USA hockey jerseys are in short supply after the American men captured Olympic gold for the first time since 1980.

Nike, which manufactures both Team USA and Team Canada’s hockey jerseys, apparently made more of the latter because the Canadians were favored to win the men’s Olympic tournament. But with Team USA’s overtime win against Canada in Sunday’s men’s final, demand for the red-white-and-blue replicas spiked.

In an email to The Athletic, Nike spokespeople said they were planning to have more jerseys available on Nike.com and will be providing supplies to their partners, such as Fanatics and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Nike seeking more information about the reason behind the shortage.

Darren Rovell, the founder of collectibles media site Cllct Media, explained the situation by pointing to the complexities of what he described as a ‘hot market.’

‘The goal is to sell all of the gear over that two-week period and get rid of it before the Olympics ends,’ Rovell said on X. ‘So those that manufacturer these items, like the Team USA jerseys, come up with a projection of what they are supposed to sell. And that projection has to sell because they will never make more. This projection did not account for the United States [men] to win the gold medal on the 46th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice.’

The supply issues aren’t limited to jerseys.

Anyone wanting to buy Jack Hughes gear after the New Jersey Devils star’s golden goal against Canada quickly discovered that hooded sweatshirts and t-shirts with his name and number were similarly unavailable.

This problem will sound familiar with Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots fans who struggled to find replica jerseys as their teams advanced to Super Bowl LX. Fanatics, which supplied official replica jerseys, ultimately issued an apology to fans.

‘NFL fans, we’ve seen your jersey feedback, and we take it very seriously,’ Fanatics wrote in a statement during Super Bowl week. ‘We’ve let Patriots and Seahawks fans down with product availability, we own that and we are sorry.

‘This Super Bowl matchup created unprecedented challenges for us because of the massive surge in demand we saw from Patriots and Seahawks fans. Both teams went from missing the playoffs last season to being in the Super Bowl, an incredibly rare occurrence that led to these two fan bases buying nearly 400 percent more jerseys since Thanksgiving vs. last year.’

There are other ways to get Team USA merchandise, such as BreakingT, which has licensing agreement with the NHL players’ union, as well as Ebbets Field, a high-end throwback manufacturer offering ‘USA’ hats typically priced around $60.

Nike did a better job anticipating demand for the Team USA women’s jerseys, perhaps, because the Americans were favored to win the tournament, unlike their countrymen.