Heated Rivalry fleece from Province of Canada causing uproar online

Heated Rivalry teamed up with apparel company Province of Canada to create a fleece based off a costume piece from the show. But when the item sold out, things got, well, heated.

The fleece that was eventually revealed to be priced at almost $400 drew ire from people online, who had lots to say in the brand’s social media comment sections.

“Having participated in a number of limited stock timed drops, unfortunately this stands to be the worst performer I’ve seen.
The fact that final design, fibre content, pricing, production numbers/availability were actively kept a secret until the moment of release lacks transparency & does not operated in good faith. Preorders usually mean items are being produced to meet demand. The fact that this drop would operate differently was not made clear,” one passionate commenter wrote.

“The countdown page would not refresh at launch; instead, one must return to the main page and click the newly presented ad for the item. Then, users were faced with a queue to checkout. If you made any changes to your address or billing information, the page automatically refreshed & sent users back to the queue. There was no grace period to check out after waiting and making it through said queue; items sold out amidst user frustrations.”

One person was a little more brief: “$356 for a sweater that’s 71% polyester?! Absolutely not. I was so excited about this, but that price is insane.”

Province of Canada was quick to respond with an online statement.

“Wow. That’s the first word that comes to mind when reflecting on Wednesday. We knew the response to the @ProvinceofCanada x @HeatedRivalryTV Fleece Jacket would be, well, heated, but we never could have imagined it would sell out in just 10 minutes. Watching it happen was surreal,” reads a message on social media from Province of Canada.

“Once we have news to share about restocking, you’ll hear it here first. For now, we’re taking a moment to focus on what’s right in front of us. Production has been underway for several weeks, and we’re looking forward to sharing updates along the way.”

While initial commenters were upset, the statement did receive some positive response.

“Have always appreciated the level of care you put into ensuring your pieces are ethically made and created to last,” one person commented. “I have pieces from 9 years ago that I still wear regularly (and they still look great!)”

“Please restock,” someone commented earnestly. “I waited months and months for this and I was on the website 15 minutes early, mine was one of the ones that glitched (order page wouldn’t load for me once the countdown ended and then it got frozen on the payment page when I tried to check out and I couldn’t complete my order before it got sold out). I’m so disappointed. I will be ready with my credit card, moving as fast as humanly possible if we get another opportunity to preorder.”