There's no getting around it. A big part of the new jersey/uniform reveal is about marketing and selling new product to fans. It's the core reason why Fanatics leaked the new Detroit Lions' jerseys hours before the team had its reveal event,
The Lions' newly brought back alternate black jerseys seem to have an equal amount of fans and haters. It's also fair to say the new black jerseys have and will sell well though, with a strong sampling of the new white and Honolulu Blue jerseys going of the shelves too.
Lions president Rod Wood reinforced what he previously said about the Lions' new uniforms to Albert Breer of SI.com last weekend.
"The main thing is we wanted to honor our colors with a modern twist,” Wood told Breer Sunday night. “We’d tired of the gray jerseys. And with the home jerseys, we wanted to go back to the block white numbers. The current ones looked cool, too, but it was hard to see the numbers if you were sitting in the stadium. So this was a way to honor the past and make them better for the fans.”
Detroit Lions' new jerseys unsurprisingly sold like hot cakes
Breer added how well the Lions' new jerseys sold right off the bat.
"It’s fair to say, too, that they’ve gone over well. The Lions did more than $1 million in sales between the stadium store and online purchases the night the jerseys were unveiled. And shoutout to Campbell—5,400 black jerseys sold at the team’s pro shop alone on the night of the release."
Breer mentioned how Dan Campbell was a driving force for the new black jerseys. He wanted the black alternate jerseys to come back when he was hired as Lions' head coach in 2021. Wood essentially said "win the division and we'll talk", and on the heels of last year's NFC North title the black jerseys are indeed back.
The new jerseys have sold so well that players have taken to social media to wonder how stores could stock more for their family and friends to buy. That the new Lions' jerseys have been hard to keep in stock, on brick-and-mortar or virtual shelves, is no surprise.