The rebuilding Washington Nationals may be in for a tough season this year, but off the field, they’re as beloved as ever. The evidence comes in jersey sales.
The Nationals released a stunning Cherry Blossom jersey design on Wednesday. The jersey set a new MLB City Connect Day 1 sales record, outselling the previous seven teams that participated last year. Those markets include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Miami, and Pheonix.
The news was first reported by Darren Rovell.
The @Nationals set first day of sales records for any MLB team’s City Connect jerseys with their Cherry Blossom jersey unveil.
Yesterday was the highest first day of sales for any City Connect jersey, beating the next best sales day for a team by 58%
The MLB Store offered both blank and Juan Soto jerseys online. The replicas went for $159 while the authentics sold for nearly $500. Every size of the adult Soto Cherry Blossom replica jersey sold out by midnight on the first day except for XXL. Adult sizes of Nationals cherry blossom jerseys are now completely sold out though there are youth, toddler, and preschool sizes available.
A Fanatics rep tells RMNB that it was “hard to give a definitive answer” on if there’d be any MLB Store restocks of Nationals’ cherry blossom jerseys in the future from Nike.
The Nationals also have been selling cherry blossom jerseys physically at their team store at Nats Park. They had a release party on Wednesday which included Clydesdale horses. The Nationals’ team store had other players available on cherry blossom jerseys including Ryan Zimmerman, Stephen Strasburg, and Josh Bell.
Popular cherry blossom items still available online include fitted, flex, and adjustable hats. While Soto jerseys are gone, a cherry blossom shirsey sporting Soto’s name and number 22 are available in large, XL, and XXL sizes. There are also cherry blossom hoodies, shirts, and socks.
You can view what Cherry Blossom merch is left in the MLB Shop’s online store here.
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