Blue Jays’ success proving to be home run for businesses selling team merchandise

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TORONTO — Bobby Mahomed’s Ottawa sportswear shop may be 455 kilometres from the Toronto Blue Jays’ home plate, but sales linked to the team are so brisk, you’d think the business was right next door.

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In the months since the Jays made it into the playoffs, Game On! at the St Laurent Shopping Centre has seen caps, jerseys, T-shirts and just about anything bearing the team’s logo fly off shelves.

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Demand has been so steep some items, like the hats the team wore when it won the American League Championship Series, were gone within hours. Stock of other merchandise such as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. jerseys was down to just kids’ sizes Friday, despite Game On! getting daily shipments of new products.

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“Usually, Jays in October merchandise is so-so because they’re usually not in the playoffs, but this year obviously is a different year altogether,” Mahomed said in an interview hours before the team was due to play its opening match in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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“All year they’ve been doing very well, so I can see our Jay’s merchandise numbers much, much higher, maybe 300 per cent, if not more than previous years.”

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His shop’s experience is no anomaly. Across Canada, business is booming for retailers of all stripes selling merchandise related to the Jays.

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Demand is perhaps the highest at the Jays Shop at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, where fans have lined up for hours in hopes of snagging coveted merchandise emblazoned with “World Series.”

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Maddie Cholette waited in the line for an hour and a half on Friday to get a program and some pins to add to her growing Jays collection.

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While she’s still contemplating a lanyard and couldn’t find all the pins she wanted, she considered herself lucky to have a World Series hat. Her dad snagged it for her at the Jays Shop just as the team wrapped its Game 7 against the Seattle Mariners, which landed it a place in the World Series.

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“I’m glad we got it that day because it’s been hard for everyone else I know to get their hands on them,” she said. “They’ve been sold out like every day since.”

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Also a hot commodity are the white-panelled Jays hats the team wore when it beat the Atlanta Braves in six games to win its first World Series championship in 1992. People have been scouring athleticwear and memorabilia shops or online marketplaces for gems like the hat.

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Shopify Inc. said companies using its e-commerce software have seen sales of jerseys linked to the team increase by more than 283 per cent between the first three weeks of September and the first three of October.

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The Canadian tech company’s merchants also saw a 235 per cent rise in purchases of Jays baseball caps.

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Over at Square, sales of Jays merchandise were up 16 per cent year-over-year in September.

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The business behind payment terminals and related software says it’s found fans are buying nearly two Jays items per order at stores selling merchandise connected to the team.

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The numbers contribute to a phenomenon Karisa Marra, head of sales at Square Canada, likes to call the “Blue Jays effect.”