Lionesses' goalkeeper shirt sells out in less than one day following Nike U-turn on decision not to sell them
Mary Earps’ England goalkeeper shirt has already sold out after Nike did a U-turn on their decision to sell the jersey, following the Lionesses’ success at the World Cup this year.
The women’s side made it all the way to the final - before being beaten 1-0 by Spain - Earps won the Golden Glove and was named keeper of the World Cup after she saved a penalty during the final.
However, despite her cracker of a tournament, Nike had initially decided not to flog replica goalkeeper shirts - which prompted a rather large backlash with more than 120,000 fans calling on the sports brand to change their decision.
The petition read in part: "We need to unite, and demand this decision is over turned. We need to show togetherness and support Mary and ask Nike to rethink their decision.
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"Let’s make them see just how important our female goalkeepers are. How respected they are and how many young girls aspire to join them in the future."
In August, Nike announced a U-turn and on Monday the goalkeeper tops finally went on sale for £99.95 - and sold out pretty soon after, according to the Daily Mail.
They're now up for sale for almost twice the price on resale sites, such as eBay.
In a statement in August Nike said: “The England GK jersey will be available in limited quantities on the FA’s website, in the coming weeks, and we are currently working to make youth GK jerseys available by the holiday season.
“We are committed to retailing women’s goalkeeping jerseys for major tournaments in the future.”
Earps had previously spoken out against the ‘hurtful’ decision not to sell the top saying at the time: “On a personal level it’s obviously hugely hurtful, considering the last 12 months especially.
“For my own family, friends and loved ones not to be able to buy my shirt, they’re just going to come out and wear normal clothes. All my team-mates, they’ve ordered a lot of shirts for their friends and family, they’re talking at the dinner table 'I wasn’t able to get this' and I’m saying 'I wasn’t able to get it at all'.
“I know there’s a lot of people who have spent a tremendous amount of money on outfield shirts and then put ‘1 Earps’ on the back, which doesn’t sit well with me either.
“It’s a very scary message that’s being sent to goalkeepers worldwide that ‘you’re not important’.
“A lesson I’ve learned is that I should have made a public statement sooner maybe. I look back on it and I’ve tried everything. I offered to fund it myself and my team-mates have been really supportive.”
Claire Reid