Backlash Emerges Over Overwatch League Jerseys Poor Quality
By Zac Cameron ·
The first batch of Fanatics jerseys for the Overwatch League have gone out, and fans are not happy.
With less than a week until the Overwatch League kicks off the 2019 season, the first batch of the new Fanatics jerseys have been shipped to thousands of waiting fans, and the results are less than the smashing success the organization was hoping for. Fans took to social media to express their distaste for the new jerseys, centering on the apparent poor quality of the merchandise in question.
The Overwatch League first revealed their multi-year partnership with Fanatics back in December of 2018, however merchandise was not available to fans until the end of January 2019, where fans began to notice the problems with the new merchandise.
This is sad, I'm getting a refund from r/Competitiveoverwatch
One of the many unhappy fans, Reddit user PyroSSBM, posted a picture of his newly arrived Atlanta Reign jersey which featured an odd brown-black lettering on top of the already dark gray fabric, which was significantly different to the initial version posted online by the Atlanta Reign back in December. On top of the hard to read lettering, it was also discovered that the letters and numbers appeared to be ironed on, rather than using dye sublimation, which means the letters could eventually just peel away from the fabric.
Today’s a day for giving, in the spirit of giving we wanted to gift everyone in the #ATLFaithful what you’ve been asking for this year...a look at our @overwatchleague jerseys! ? ? ?
— Atlanta Reign (@ATLReign) December 25, 2018
Merry Christmas from all of us at Atlanta Reign, we ♥️ you all! #OWL2019 #LetItReign pic.twitter.com/lleRK0LLiM
On top of the quality concerns, fans outside of North America face some pretty hefty shipping fees, with one user posting the shipping costs almost equaling the price of the jersey to begin with. A European merchandise store is expected to launch in the future to help lower the shipping costs, but that doesn’t bring much comfort for EU based fans at this stage. the Overwatch League is expected to make a statement on the merchandise issues sometime in the near future.