Anti-racists tees selling well after Euros

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Jul 26, 2021

Statement T-shirts and sweatshirts in support of England footballers who received racist abuse after the team’s Euro 2020 final defeat are recording high sales, according to online clothing retailers.

Sales were inspired by actor Jason Sudeikis, who was pictured wearing a self-made sweatshirt last week at an event celebrating the second season of his football comedy, Ted Lasso. It bore the first names of Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka. 

Copycat tops have been selling strongly on Redbubble, Etsy and other sites including teezleystore since, according to the Guardian.

Mike Harding, the founder of ethical products company Notjustclothing, told the newspaper he was inspired to produce a version of Sudeikis’s top after seeing it trending on Instagram “but we couldn’t find a link to buy one for ourselves”.

He added that the company wanted to help people get behind the message and that its webstore had sold almost 100 shirts since it started selling them last Friday, while traffic to its Etsy page had increased tenfold over the weekend.

“T-shirts like this offer everyday fans a way of showing their respect and joining the movement. Anything that helps to spread and raise awareness of the anti-racism message is to be welcomed,” he said.

Matthew Fairchild, the founder of SportsTees4U, also said “sales are tremendous”, with more than 450 shirts sold.

Sudeikis said: “I just felt it was necessary to use the platform of our big, fancy ‘worldwide premiere’ to try and personify our show’s support of those three young men. Which is why I chose to put their three names on the sweatshirt. The names their parents gave them.”