New England Revolution fans deal with jersey woes

Tuesday, Feb. 15 was supposed to be an amazing day for the club.

It was supposed to be the day that the New England Revolution held a jersey launch event prior to a CONCACAF Champions League (CCL) match against Cavaly AS. Visa issues caused Cavaly AS to forfeit its CCL matches and the jersey launch event was canceled.

That didn’t stop dedicated fans from making the trip to Gillette Stadium to get their hands on the new “Liberty” kit.

Cathrine Gallagher, a member of the Midnight Riders made a two-hour round trip journey to get her hands on a new jersey. When she arrived at the ProShop midway through the day, she left disappointed.

“I asked the person who greeted us as we came in where the authentic jerseys were and he directed me to the replicas,” she said. “When I informed him they were the replica, he corrected me, at which point I said thank you and he walked away.”

Gallagher ended up asking another employee, who told her that authentic jerseys would be in two weeks later.

The Midnight Rider ended up grabbing a ‘zero FCs given” t-shirt and left the shop. She then ordered an authentic jersey from Fanatics in the Gillette Stadium parking lot.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Twitter user @jusscali was able to get his hands on an authentic jersey. Since he appeared at the shop later in the day, the ProShop had some in stock, but they didn’t have player jerseys. He ultimately customized a blank authentic kit with Carles Gil’s new number.

While he was able to get his hands on a kit, he was still left disappointed by how the jersey launch ended up occurring.

“I mean, it’s hard to argue that the entire thing doesn’t feel like a pretty heavily missed opportunity, unfortunately,” he said. “The leak, followed by the small clip of Jozy [Altidore] (whether intentional or not) has made this whole thing rather underwhelming. That’s only compounded a bit by the muted impact of a safe first kit in this new era of the club. I don’t blame the club per se, but the entire rebrand should have come in tandem with the new kit.”

“It’s something for the league to think about moving forward,” he concluded.

The ProShop at Gillette Stadium did make an effort to help fans who were unsuccessful in finding the exact jersey they wanted. The official Twitter account reached out to a fan who was unable to purchase an authentic kit.

It’s also interesting to note that Adidas seems to have prioritized the new home kit. New York Red Bulls and Once a Metro Reporter/Editor Ben Cork mentioned that the jersey is displayed in the brand’s NYC store.

So how did some fans end up with jerseys and others didn’t? The club told The Bent Musket what happened.

“Adidas missed their delivery timelines on authentic, youth, and goalkeeper jerseys,” the club said. “The club was able to take authentic jerseys from the team’s own supply to help take care of fans at the ProShop this year. The ProShop’s order of authentic and youth jerseys is expected to arrive in the coming days.”

The club later confirmed that they expect goalkeeper jerseys to arrive in May.