49ers can’t meet demand for Purdy gear

Rookie quarterback’s early success pushes his NFL jersey to top of most-wanted list

Scrambling for a Brock Purdy jersey all of a sudden? You’re not alone.

Purdy’s breakout has the San Francisco 49ers working to meet fans’ swift and considerable appetite for merchandise to support the rookie quarterback marching their team toward the playoffs.

On Monday, searches for the term “Brock Purdy jersey” on Google outpaced similar searches for fellow quarterbacks Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow, as well as injured teammate Jimmy Garoppolo.

On Friday, a day after the 49ers clinched the NFC West with a victory in Seattle, Purdy’s scarlet No. 13 jersey was listed as among the “Most Popular” on the NFL’s online apparel store.

“Demand’s sky-high,” said Umesh Johari, the 49ers’ vice president of business strategy and analytics.

A shipment of Purdy jerseys that arrived in the team store at Levi’s Stadium before last Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay quickly sold out. Johari declined to provide specific numbers for sales but said Purdy jerseys online are also selling “really, really well.”

“I would say it’s comparable to when we drafted Trey Lance,” Johari said.

With unexpected stories like Purdy’s possible every NFL season, teams try to plan for this sort of thing, Johari said. The NFL partners with sports-apparel maker Fanatics to manufacture its retail jerseys and other fan gear.

For their in-stadium store, the 49ers each year order a quantity of blank jerseys that can be printed with a player’s name and number as needed, Johari said. In a case like Purdy’s — or Christian McCaffrey after the 49ers traded for him in October — the team will prepare those blank jerseys while also ordering shipments of new finished jerseys.

Both processes take time, though. And for online orders, until an inventory of Purdy jerseys is available, each jersey is being finished as the order arrives and shipped as it gets produced, Johari said.

There was little to foreshadow Purdy’s emergence. He was “Mr. Irrelevant” as the final pick in this year’s draft out of Iowa State and the 49ers’ third-string quarterback to start the season

behind Lance, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 draft, and Garoppolo, the erstwhile face of the franchise.

Lance went down with a broken ankle in Week 2 and Garoppolo suffered a broken foot in Week 13. Purdy replaced Garoppolo in that game, leading the 49ers to a win over Miami, and has since started a thrashing of Tampa Bay and the divisionclinching win over the Seahawks.

Sensing Purdy jerseys might catch on after the Miami game, Johari said the 49ers worked with Fanatics to make “as many as we could” before the Tampa Bay game. “Those sold out right away,” he said.

As of Friday, Purdy’s red men’s jersey was unavailable to order via the 49ers’ online store in small, medium, large and extra-large (it was available in sizes 2XL-5XL). Other jersey versions showed more sizes available, though with delivery not until after Christmas.

There is some good news, though: The 49ers expect to get “hundreds” of Purdy jerseys in stock at Levi’s Stadium before their home game against Washington on Saturday, Johari said. And there will be several weeks to produce more before the playoffs start.

“So we should have more than enough for the Christmas Eve game,” Johari said, “and we’ll go from there.”

Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press A shipment of Brock Purdy jerseys that arrived before last Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay quickly sold out.