Fanatics issues apology for Super Bowl 60 gear shortage, fan backlash

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Fanatics issues apology for Super Bowl 60 gear shortage, fan backlash

February 4, 2026

The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks were not on anyone’s Super Bowl bingo card this year, and now that surprise is causing real problems.

Fanatics, the NFL’s exclusive merchandise partner, did not see this matchup coming either.

The company put out an apology Monday night after customers started complaining about Patriots and Seahawks jerseys sold ahead of Sunday’s game.

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They blamed the stock issues on both teams jumping from playoff misses to the Super Bowl in one season. Demand shot up nearly 400 percent compared to last year, and even though the company ordered more inventory than usual, it couldn’t keep up.

“NFL fans, we’ve seen your jersey feedback, and we take it very seriously. We’ve let Patriots and Seahawks fans down with product availability – we own that and we are sorry,” Fanatics wrote.

“Both teams went from missing the playoffs last season to being in the Super Bowl, an incredibly rare occurrence that led to these two fanbases buying nearly 400% more jerseys since Thanksgiving vs. last year. Even though we ordered substantially more jerseys for these teams than ever before, we’ve struggled to meet the overwhelming demand to keep team color jerseys in stock.”

NFL fans weren’t impressed with the explanation. Morning Brew shared, “Their explanation? ‘sorry your teams were trash last year we didn’t expect this.’”

Another person wrote, “Fanatics sucks lol idk how they pretty much gained a monopoly on the market these days.”

One fan commented, “fanatics engineers definitely hardcoded ‘if team == trash: stock = 0’ and went to lunch. someone forgot to push the update for the comeback arc.”

Another added, “I would rather be sold out of quality items then to put garbage up for sale.”

A fan not dressed for the occasion cheers for the New England Patriots at the team’s Super Bowl 60 sendoff rally — A fan not dressed for the occasion cheers for the New England Patriots at the team’s Super Bowl LX sendoff rally at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026.

Fanatics and the NFL signed a 10-year deal in 2018 that made the company the league’s exclusive fan apparel provider. Nike handles the on-field uniforms.

Reports suggest, this isn’t Fanatics’ first Super Bowl mess either. Two years back, the company ran out of white San Francisco 49ers jerseys before the team’s overtime loss to Kansas City.

None expected a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl in 2026, but fans paying full price for gear should not be the ones dealing with the fallout.