As the final seconds of Super Bowl LVI ticked away, they marked the end of the road for the Cincinnati Bengals’ 2021-2022 season. They also marked the end of all that Bengals Super Bowl merchandise that cannot be sold. After all, you can’t sell T-shirts and sweatshirts celebrating a Cincinnati victory because, well, they lost.

Such is the story after every NFL championship game. Likewise for the championships of most other major team sports. Leagues go out of their way to produce merchandise in the weeks leading up to the championship so that it is ready for sale the minute the final buzzer sounds. To make that possible, they have to produce merchandise for both teams. So what happens to the losing team merchandise?

Most of it goes overseas. In fact, the NFL has a working agreement with a nonprofit that collects the losing team’s apparel and sends it to organizations in other countries that give away clothing. A couple of weeks from now, plenty of people on the other side of the world will be wearing hats, sweatshirts, and T-shirts celebrating what could have been for the Cincinnati Bengals.

• Comparatively Cheap to Produce

Given the sheer volume of apparel a major sports league would have to produce in the run up to a championship, you might wonder why they spend all that money. According to the people behind Umai, a boutique clothing brand that specializes in anime apparel, T-shirts and sweatshirts are fairly cheap to produce. Leagues like the NFL can spend comparatively little on apparel for both teams, then give away the losing team merchandise after the big game.

What they lose through donations is more than made up for by sales of the winning team’s merchandise. When a customer buys a winner’s T-shirt, they are actually covering the cost of a loser’s T-shirt as well. There is obviously profit built in to the retail price. Needless to say, the major sports leagues aren’t losing money on the deal.

• Picking up the Pieces

While a bunch of people overseas will be enjoying their Super Bowl merchandise, the Bengals will be left picking up the pieces and preparing for next season. It would be curious to know if any of the Bengals players or coaches might be interested in getting their hands on some of that apparel before it is all shipped overseas. Would a T-shirt hanging in the closet remind them of what could have been?

Maybe hanging on to a hat or T-shirt would be motivation to put up a good fight next year. Perhaps it would serve as an object lesson as the Bengals coaching staff seeks to solve the problems that led to the team’s defeat. Who knows? It could also be that none of them wants to even see a piece of merchandise declaring them Super Bowl champions. Perhaps the images would be too painful to look at.

• Fueling American Consumerism

The dust will eventually settle, and the NFL and its fans will start looking forward to next season. The one thing that will not change is this: all of that left over Super Bowl merchandise is a reflection of American consumerism. The fact that the NFL is willing to spend so much money producing apparel they know they will end up giving away only illustrates how much profit they expect to make on the winning team’s merchandise.

We may think it is a waste, but we are the consumers who make it possible. So perhaps there is a lesson to be learned by all of us.