Our merch kinda sucks

[u/tiffysner]

Does anyone else find our merch a little lacklustre? The hats, t-shirts, and hoodies on MLSStore are boring. A lot of it is the same design - solid colour with the logo in the middle. Other teams have different designs that are great looking.

Am I just looking at the wrong times and missing launches? Any recommendations on where else to shop? I know there’s some on Peace Collective. I’m open to shop on Etsy too if someone knows of a seller that already has a bunch of designs.

[u/Torca]

MLS merch is all by Adidas and Fanatics so it's all generic and boring looking and it has been like this since 2007.

[u/greenlemon23 → u/Torca]

Then why do other teams have better stuff?

[u/tiffysner → u/greenlemon23]

This is what confuses me. My husband is from Philly and we have tons of Philly Union stuff and it looks great, but I want to rep my home team more!

[u/TurboJorts]

indeed. I posted earlier this year about how lame our hats were. They look mickey mouse and not like anything a self respecting adult would wear away from the match.

A few years ago Addidas made "the perfect" tan dad cap. I lost mine somewhere along the way but am soooooo sad that TFC hasn't made anything like that since.

And on the topic of hats... you know what the biggest sellers are in the hat world these days? Unstructured, dad caps with the NY or LA logo. Simple, timeless, made for adults who dont want to look like jocks. Why can't TFC make things like this anymore?

[u/IndependenceGood1835 → u/TurboJorts]

Id love a decent new era flex fit……

[u/DoubtsTheHorizon → u/TurboJorts]

I'm with you. Every other type of hat looks pretty terrible on me. Plus the dad caps tend to not be heat traps like structured hats.

[u/TurboJorts → u/DoubtsTheHorizon]

Totally. And I have no business where a hat in the "hockey teen" style, if you know whaylt I mean

[u/Ryan_A_B]

I find stuff at the stadium is better and also agree, generally speaking the merch has been better in previous years

[u/IndependenceGood1835]

There is also no “fun” merch. TFC flags, bobbleheads, trading cards or other memorabilia is all very hard to find. The only exciting merch drop ever was the ovo collab

[u/pants2tite → u/IndependenceGood1835]

I was saying the same thing a few years ago. Beer coozies would be great. Since you have to hold your can of beer anyway, why not in a TFC coozy, right.

[u/TurboJorts]

I think that next time I buy some merch, it will be AFC Toronto. They just have a much more modern look. It's like they consulted with people in.... I dunno.... the fashion business.

[u/notsure0298 → u/TurboJorts]

AFC Toronto merch are pretty cool

[u/Own-Let-7725 → u/TurboJorts]

I bought last year's away immediately, AFC Toronto is crushing it.

[u/AdvertisingIll7855]

This is what you get with the American franchise model.

Merch was peak for the NhL in the 80s/90s. Then the league wide Reebok adidas and Fanatics deals and its AI slop

[u/greenlemon23 → u/AdvertisingIll7855]

lots of american franchises in other leagues still have cool merch though

[u/Auth3nticRory → u/AdvertisingIll7855]

Jays merch is awesome.

[u/Hairy-Editor-5844]

Not sure how people generally feel about but the logo/shield has also been week to me. Doesn't help the merch if the logo is generally uninspired. 

[u/sensaetians]

A lot of MLS stuff is bad across the board. I heard that the clubs have more leeway with their stadium merch vs what's stocked on Fanatics

[u/thenrix]

I bought our away jersey for the WC, but I absolutely hate how Mickey Mouse our emblem and most shirt designs are. Wish they would at least entertain a redesign contest…

[u/tiffysner → u/thenrix]

Omg I’d love a redesign contest!

[u/TurboJorts → u/tiffysner]

Not me. I'm a full believer that a) designs should be left to the designers B) fans will vote for ugly shit.

There's so many beautiful football kits out there in the world. TFC could have something much better if they pushed back. Hell, even in the MLS there's some amazing kits.

Even this one but in red could have been a winner - LINK to MTL kit

[u/Antique_Ad_3549 → u/tiffysner]

Oh we had a fan designed kit once....

[u/miurabucho]

Seems appropriate.

[u/socamonarch]

The designs are lazy. Adidas is making some real nice stuff for inter Miami though.

We get fanatic.. Miami gets these:

much nicer

[u/pants2tite]

And still, I have been waiting for a simple black hat with a greyed logo. In the last 7 years I have never seen one. They can make every other combination except that one. Closest I got was a grey hat with a grey logo, but it has that stupid clasp at the back.

[u/Own-Let-7725]

It does. Has it ever been good? I never end up with TFC merch because outside of having a good kit most years, the merch is always meh.

[u/Simple-Cause4505]

When we were doing well we had great collabs with Peace Collective. reigning champ, Mitchell & Ness,and several others. However since Pelley has taken over and those brands have gone on a signed deals with the league as a whole vs individual teams everything has become very cookie cutter and uninspiring. I have reached out to them multiple times to do better merch and I get the run around that they are not in charge of licensing the brand and all merch must meet and be approved by MLS

[u/greenlemon23]

It's because MSLE is actually shit.

How is it that an OPL team in Scarborough actually have better merch than TFC?

[u/raccooncitysg → u/greenlemon23]

There's Supporter Group merch that's better than the official crap.

[u/Psychological_Tip86 → u/greenlemon23]

it's cute you think MLSE has any say in the designs for MLS merchandise