Billionaire owner of apparel brand Fanatics, Michael Rubin, apologized to customers on Twitter after fans apparently received bizarre and crooked merchandise.
Rubin, a former Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils part owner, sold his shares in those sporting franchises to pursue his work at Fanatics, a retail brand focused on sports jerseys and apparel. Fanatics signed a deal with the NFL and Nike in 2018 to become the exclusive distributor for all of the NFL’s Nike-branded merchandise.
Responding to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Rubin took to Twitter to defend the brand.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in business – own your mistakes.
Anytime we let any fan down, it’s a failure on our part and that’s on me.
Last year we sold nearly four million units of Eagles merchandise. That’s just Eagles products, which shows Philly fans truly are the… pic.twitter.com/Fegqd2bRJm
— Michael Rubin (@michaelrubin) September 19, 2023
“Anytime we let any fan down, it’s a failure on our part and that’s on me,” Rubin tweeted.
The Inquirer posted a series of tweets from fans complaining that their official merchandise was “crooked.”
YES I WAS PISSED. pic.twitter.com/4gnv3792dN
— Andrizzy (1-0) 🦅 (@acumber99) September 14, 2023
Rubin assured fans the issue only affected a small number of people. (RELATED: Here Are The Top-Selling NFL Team Hats And Jerseys In Each State For The 2022-2023 Season)
“Last year we sold nearly four million units of Eagles merchandise. That’s just Eagles products, which shows Philly fans truly are the greatest!” Rubin tweeted. “That said, I let some of you down and I apologize. Even though this specific issue only affected a few dozen customers, it is still completely unacceptable that this mistake happened. One bad product and one unhappy customer is one too many,” he concluded.
Rubin also claims he and his company have reached out to every customer who had an issue.
“I promise you that me and everyone at Fanatics cares deeply. We’ve attempted to reach out to every fan who purchased this product to ensure they received it as expected and make it great if not.”