Royals fans want their souvenirs

Just minutes after the Kansas City Royals won the 2015 World Series, fans flocked to area stores to snap up their souvenir apparel.

They pretty much haven’t stopped shopping since.

Dick’s Sporting Goods opened its area stores about 11:30 p.m. Sunday and stayed open until about 4 a.m. Monday, then reopened at 7 a.m. Gray locker room T-shirts have been hot sellers but fans wanted anything declaring the Royals as World Series champions — from hats to pennants to decals.

“When the players wear something it is something the fans are always interested in,” said Eric Marshall, senior community marketing manager Kansas City/Nebraska for Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Dick’s said they had T-shirts at hand declaring both the Mets and the Royals as the winner and unsold merchandise — Mets as 2015 World Series champions? — is donated to World Vision International for countries in need.

But Academy Sports said it didn’t order any Mets items for the area market.

“We focused on Royals World Series championship product given that they’re our partners, and we wanted to have the championship product ready for fans in our Kansas City, Wichita and Topeka stores as soon as they won,” said Allan Rojas, spokesman for Academy Sports.

Academy Sports in Overland Park sold out of men’s and children’s locker room T-shirts by 8 p.m. Monday. Fans were still shopping for Royals apparel and memorabilia at the Hy-Vee at 95th Street and Antioch Road at 9 p.m.

At Overland Park’s Oak Park Mall, retailers like JCPenney’s and Sportibles drew crowds for their Royals-themed apparel throughout Monday with a few shoppers even coming in Tuesday morning before the parade.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Royals fans want their souvenirs."