Canada's women's soccer team is more popular than ever — so where's the merch?
CBC
When Canada's national women's soccer team defeated Sweden for Olympic gold last month, more than four million Canadians were glued to the dramatic game. Among them was Marina Peres Labelle, 12, who is part of a soccer program in Pointe-Claire, Que.
She and some of her teammates would have liked to have been wearing a team jersey in their size to show support — but their hunt proved fruitless.
"We couldn't find any women's jerseys and we were pretty disappointed because they had a bunch of men's jerseys," said Marina. "So we thought that was really unfair."
Fans of — and even players on — Canada's women's soccer team find it frustrating that it's still so hard to buy player jerseys, even after an Olympic gold medal.
Some experts say Canada Soccer should have been better prepared to market its most successful team.
Women's soccer is a big demographic to neglect. Around 85,000 girls are registered to play soccer in Canada right now. The national team are idols to many of those girls and young women, who would have liked to have shown their support during the recent Olympics in Tokyo.
As for the men's team, which did not qualify for the Tokyo Games, the national team jersey for star Alphonso Davies is available from several retailers in red, black and white.