Stores Report Record Lions Merch Sales Amid Playoff Hype

For the first time in franchise history, the Detroit Lions have won the NFC North for a second season in a row and have secured a first-round bye in the NFL Playoffs. The Lions are unironically being talked about as Super Bowl favorites and everyone has jumped on the bandwagon. Going into Meijer on a Sunday is a sea of Honolulu Blue, which was definitely not a thing even two years ago.

One local store reported massive sales records of more than $200,000 of Lions apparel in December alone. People haven't been this outwardly proud of being a Lions fan..well, ever. So, considering so many people have discovered a newfound love for Grit and eating kneecaps, just how valuable has the Lions brand become?

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A Quick Timeline of the Campbell Era

In 2022, the Lions were in Dan Campbell's second season and were coming off a typical Lions 3-13 season. 2022 saw the team go 9-8, their first winning season since 2017. However, 2023 saw the Lions become the team America had fallen in love with, going 12-5 and going all the way to the NFC North Championship game in what many were calling a "Cinderella Season". The team has kept that momentum all season, showing they are no Cinderella with an insane 11-game win streak to finish 15-2.

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This 2023 campaign was the season many players like Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jared Goff became household names and 2024 solidified their popularity. How do we know? Well, the NFL themselves have said so.

NFL Top 50 Players

A great metric to get an idea of just how popular Lions merchandise has become is to look at the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), which posts a Top 50 NFL Player Sales List every few months showing which players have the most sales related to their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). By the end of the 2021-22 season, Aidan Hutchinson was the only Lions player to crack the top 50, sneaking in at #42. The 22-23 season ended with Hutchinson at #18 and St. Brown entering at #33

Then saw last year's momentous success, which was reflected by Lions players leaping into the Top 50 throughout the season. In the March 1st to May 31st, 2024 report:

• Hutchinson soared into 3rd place, making him the first defensive player in the top 3 since 2019
• St. Brown followed close behind in 4th place
• Jahmyr Gibbs ran into 8th place
• Jared Goff, buoyed by MVP chants, rose to 18th place
• Sam LaPorta entered the Top 50 in 44th place

But perhaps the most shocking entry was Penei Sewell, who became the third offensive lineman to ever appear in the Top 50 list.

The latest report, which shows the Top 50 players from March 1st to August 31st, 2024, features all the previous players minus Sewell. That's 5 players in the Top 50, more than any team. Numbers for the 2024-25 season have not been released yet, but it isn't a stretch to assume the Lions will continue its dominance on the Top 50.

All this to say lots of people are profiting from the Lion's success.