Nike didn’t think Team USA would beat Canada, so now you can’t buy a jersey

Drew Smith
February 25, 2026
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I’ll be honest, I have pretty much aged out of the jersey buying phase of my life. Outside of the Bryce Harper No. 24 DH Gate Team USA World Baseball Classic jersey I ordered yesterday for a very reasonable $22.19, I am basically retired from the hobby.

Outside of that, if I was in the market for another jersey, a Team USA men’s hockey jersey would be near the top of the list after what just happened in Milan.

After watching what Jack Hughes and Connor Hellebuyck did to bring America its first men’s hockey gold medal in 46 years, the demand for jerseys has to be through the roof. Any kid who plays hockey in this country is probably begging their parents for one right now.

The only problem is Nike doesn’t have any.

Hockey fans are frustrated after Nike underestimated demand for Team USA hockey jerseys.

The brand reportedly expected Canada to win gold instead and "failed to produce enough stock," according to a report from @theathletic.

MORE: https://t.co/Ag9PhwkxAc pic.twitter.com/puJbNceJF5
— Sports Business Journal (@SBJ) February 24, 2026

According to The Athletic, if you go looking for Team USA hockey jerseys right now you’re coming up empty. Nike, which handles manufacturing for Team USA hockey merchandise, didn’t produce enough stock because Canada was expected to win the gold medal. Not the United States.

Wait. What?

First of all, that’s insane. Second of all, this wasn’t 1980. The U.S. wasn’t a bunch of college kids playing against the best players in the world. We came into that game basically even money. A coin flip.

Nike is a $90 billion company and they looked at a 50/50 situation and decided to bet against America. And now, instead of having a product available for the wave of fans who want to give them money immediately after a gold medal, they’re sitting here with nothing to sell and a completely avoidable public embarrassment.

The reasoning they’re hiding behind is that the Olympics are a “hot market,” meaning Nike manufactures for what they expect to sell and doesn’t want unsold inventory sitting around. Two weeks, the merchandise is trending, and then it’s over.

Fine. That’s a real business consideration.

That said, the whole point of the hot market is that you want to be ready when demand spikes. Demand just spiked. Nike missed it entirely.

And this keeps happening. Between this and the ongoing Fanatics jersey disasters, it genuinely feels like every few weeks there’s a new story about a company failing to figure out the fairly simple concept of making jerseys and having them available for purchase.

It should not be this complicated. If you’re short on supply, make more. If there’s going to be a delay, tell people that and let them pre-order. Don’t just shrug and say there’s nothing available while leaving money on the table and fans empty-handed.

Nike chose to play it safe and ended up looking like the biggest company in sports apparel couldn’t figure out how to support a gold medal run. The horror of having a few extra USA hockey jerseys in the warehouse if Canada had won apparently outweighed everything else. Great call, idiots.