Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

Inter Miami’s Jersey Reveal Gets Backlash For Breaking MLS Tradition

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Parker Johnson | Last updated Dec 12, 2024 11:24 AM ET

On Thursday, Inter Miami CF released its new "Fortitude" kit for 2025, but Major League Soccer fans noticed something unusual about the timing.

Comments flooded in on Instagram under photos of 2024 MLS MVP Lionel Messi wearing the new black away jersey, accusing Inter Miami of breaking a respected MLS tradition.

In 2023 and 2024, the American soccer league established the tradition of MLS Jersey Week in mid-February, when Adidas kits for the new season were revealed league-wide and went on sale just weeks before the new season began.

By contrast, Inter Miami's 2025 jersey reveal came just five days after the MLS Cup Final, taking some of the shine away from Los Angeles Galaxy's 2-1 victory over New York Red Bulls.

Fans took exception to the timing of the jersey reveal by the South Florida club that has a reputation for not playing by the same rules as the other MLS franchises.

"Whoa, we doing kit reveals already??" pointed out a comment on MLS' Instagram post featuring the new jersey.

"2025 kit releases in December. What are we doing," criticized another fan.

"no way miami got there (sic) new kit before the champions and its still december," echoed a dissenting voice.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Major League Soccer (@mls)

"It's nice some teams can release their kit before the Holiday," a comment said. "Wouldn't bit be great if the rules were the same for every team?"

To the fans' point, there is plenty of incentive for the new jerseys to come out before the popular gift-giving period around the Christmas holiday. Messi's Inter Miami jersey is the best-selling sports jersey in Adidas' entire portfolio, per ESPN.

His iconic No. 10 shirt ranked first in MLS jersey sales in 2023 and 2024, with newcomer Luis Suarez coming in at second this season among all MLS jerseys.

Cool. Can the rest of the league get their kits released?
— David (@djzeigler21) December 12, 2024

"So Miami gets more treatment by having their kit released a month ahead of everyone else’s," theorized another Instagram commenter. "Sounds about right."

"So they just release kits whenever they want as well?" said a fan, targeting the league. "Okay, MLS..."

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: