MIAMI — Lionel Messi’s No. 10 Inter Miami jersey is about to become one of the most sought-after shirts in sports history. Factories in Vietnam, Norway, Italy and Miamisburg, Ohio, (yes, Miamisburg) are bracing for the onslaught of orders.
From the moment the Argentine soccer icon announced on June 7 his plans to join Miami’s MLS franchise, a company called Embelix Team Sports doubled its staff and began working around the clock at those four locations to add Messi’s name and number to whatever Inter Miami pink and black Adidas jerseys it could get its hands on.
Embelix is the official licensed sponsor for jersey names and numbers for MLS, the English Premier League and Spain’s LaLiga. It produces and applies the heat transfers used to add names and numbers to shirts and provide team crests and sponsor badges.
“We’re preparing capacity, making sure we’re staffed with extra personnel and shifts because these presses will be running 24 hours a day nonstop for the next few weeks, at least,” said Matt Witterstaetter, commercial director for Embelix, a division of the $9 billion Avery Dennison company. “Our job is to keep up with the demand of the Messi jerseys. We’ve already started some operations running products ahead of time, even prior to signing, knowing once we get the OK from MLS, we’ll start shipping that day.”
Embelix has been working closely with Adidas and MLS to plan the rollout of the shirts as soon as Messi signs a contract with the league, which is expected to happen by early July. Adidas is not only the uniform supplier for the league, but also a longtime sponsor of Messi’s.
The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner and defending World Cup champion has been a global ambassador for Adidas since 2006. Over the years, he has become the face of the brand’s soccer division.
In 2017, Messi signed a lifetime shoe contract with Adidas that is estimated to be worth $1 billion. He makes $25 million annually from his endorsement deal with the company, and the proposed deal to join MLS this summer includes a revenue sharing agreement with Adidas based on league growth he generates, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations.
“In the case of Messi, all the retailers around the world will be jockeying for jerseys,” Witterstaetter said. “Adidas has to commit to that supply chain and decide what goes where. As you can imagine, the interest level in South America is massive. They’re asking, ‘How many jerseys are we going to get?’ They’re ready to place orders.”
David Beckham, a co-owner of Inter Miami, sold 300,000 LA Galaxy jerseys per season during his five-and-a-half years after joining that club in 2007. Messi is expected to sell far more. His Paris Saint-Germain shirt was the world’s top-selling jersey last year with 1.2 million sold for a total of $139 million. His No. 10 Argentina shirt sold out worldwide midway through the 2022 World Cup.
“I can’t share numbers that Adidas has shared with us,” Witterstaetter said. “They’re still trying to understand what the total impact will be. There are roughly 100,000 garments in the market today that we can go and provide kits for, and they could be introduced to the market as soon as he signs. But the number after that is what Adidas is really trying to understand. What are they going to have to produce, where is it going to be distributed?
“We’re preparing Asia, Europe and U.S. sites to produce on demand once we get those figures. We already have retailers and distributors giving us their forecasts of what they want to sell, but that ties back to how many shirts will be made available.”
Embelix experienced a huge boost in business when Cristiano Ronaldo returned to Manchester United in 2021, but all indications are the Messi move to Miami will eclipse that.
The company has been getting ready for the potential move for quite some time.
“We are in close contact with MLS and there have been rumors of this maybe happening, so we’ve been in conversations,” Witterstaetter said. “Certainly, we can’t act on anything until we know. We can’t put jerseys on the market or even send them to distributors until post-signing.
“But since the announcement, we’ve had multiple calls per day with MLS as far as coordination, preparation, updates of what’s coming. There’s a lot of activity now with the league, with us and I’m sure with all their partners. MLS wants to make sure everyone’s on the same page.”
Adidas also jumped on the Messi news almost immediately.
All over the world, Adidas stores are decorated with “Bienvenido at Miami” signage. When visitors click onto the Adidas website, online users are greeted with an image of Messi with the message “Bienvenido A Miami.”
Hopeful that Messi might decide to join Inter Miami, the club reserved jersey No. 10 for him. Nobody else is wearing that shirt so far this season. But a whole lot of people will be wearing it soon.
