At downtown sports apparel shop Chicago Sports & Novelty, manager Loretta Rizzo laid out a freshly stocked stack of Munetaka Murakami jerseys.
“We’ve sold out of these three times,” she said, pointing to the pile of black and white fabric with the White Sox first baseman’s name spelled out in Japanese characters.
Since the wild-card round started, Munetaka Murakami has had the fourth-bestselling jersey in all of baseball, and the top three selling jerseys for the White Sox, according to sports merchandise company Fanatics. But it’s not just Murakami gear that fans are snatching up. Sales of White Sox merchandise across the board are up two times this week compared with last week.
With the team headed to the American League Division Series this weekend, stores across Chicago are experiencing an unprecedented demand for White Sox merchandise.
“They just won less than 24 hours ago,” Jason Caref, owner of Clark Street Sports, said on Thursday, referring to the team’s win over the Houston Astros. “There were a bunch of online sales overnight.”
“I’m expecting a big weekend as they get into the next round,” he added.
At sports apparel store Grandstand, located just down the street from Rate Field, “anything with the Sox logo currently is flying off the shelf,” owner Stephanie Ganal said.
Grandstand is primarily known for its White Sox gear, but usually in October, the clothing on display is for the Bears.
“When we are into Bear season, and our sales floor is still primarily White Sox, you know the team is doing it well,” Ganal said with a laugh.
Inside Grandstand, amid rows of black and white hats, jerseys, lunchboxes and other miscellaneous equipment, lifelong fan Billy Pindozzo picked out a White Sox sweatshirt that says “No Time Like October.”
Pindozzo is going to the blackout game at Rate Field on Wednesday.
“I just want some new gear for the game,” he said on Friday. “I got a bunch, but I want some new stuff.”
“Put away the Cubs stuff, it’s Sox time,” said Grandstand customer Rocco Arcieri, who was also shopping for the game on Wednesday. “The Cubs are the past, the Sox are the future. We’re young, we’re hungry, we’re ready to rock and roll.”
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While sales have taken off in the last few days amid the team’s playoff victories, the good business has been a trend throughout the whole season, Ganal said.
“We’ve been busy like this since April,” she said.
As of Thursday night, White Sox gear sales at Clark Street Sports were up 70% this season when compared with last season, Caref said.
Staff at Clark Street Sports, which has multiple locations across the city and typically carries more Cubs gear than White Sox, have been folding up the blue and red jerseys and tucking them into the back to make space for large White Sox displays.
“They’re (White Sox jerseys) getting moved to the prominent location in the store,” Caref said, “and we’re ordering more Sox merchandise so that people have more products to choose from.”
Mayra Cisneros, general manager at Chicago Sports & Novelty, said the store’s crew regrets not having ordered as much White Sox gear at the start of the year.
“That was a big mistake that everybody’s going through,” she said. “If they keep advancing, we’re gonna be out of merchandise.”
Their crew is preparing for a better season next year.
“For next year we actually placed a much bigger order,” Cisneros said of the White Sox jerseys. “We doubled the amount just because of the way they’re playing.”
Chicago Sports & Novelty is located on Michigan Avenue, so a lot of its customers are tourists.
“Europeans love the White Sox,” Cisneros said with a laugh. “They’ll come and spend the money.”
With the excitement around the Bears coming at the same time as the White Sox victories, sports retailers agree that it’s a great time to be in business.
“It feels way better than, let’s say, two years ago, when the whole Chicago sports scene had gone through a drought, where no one made the playoffs,” Caref said. “I mean, there was a time where I definitely didn’t know where the next paycheck was coming from.”
“It’s Bears and Sox fighting for retail space on the floor,” Ganal said. “A good problem to have.”
“Let’s keep winning,” Caref said, “and let’s keep buying merchandise!”
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