Jeremy Lin’s incredible and meteoric rise from a bench-warming backup point guard to a nationwide sensation has local retailers scrambling to try to stock their shelves with his No. 17 Knicks jersey. But if you want to wear one to watch Lin and the Knicks take on the Lakers tonight, the only place you can get it is at Madison Square Garden.
That’s because the Garden, in an effort to try to sate the sudden demand for Lin merchandise, is in the process of creating jerseys from scratch on-site. Using the same process it would if a fan ordered a customized jersey with his own name and number on the back, the Garden staff has produced hundreds of jerseys with Lin’s name and No. 17 on them, and will have them available tonight, according to a spokesperson.
At nyknicksstore.com, Lin home and road jerseys are selling for $54.95 — $10 more than the jerseys of established stars Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony.
The NBA’s official store in midtown Manhattan said it expects to have the short-sleeved jersey T-shirts available in about a week-and-a-half, with jerseys from adidas, the league’s official supplier, expected to be available in about three weeks. The Garden is expecting to get a shipment of official jerseys from adidas at about the same time.
Modell’s, on the other hand, didn’t know when its stores would have either available.
* If you want to get into the Garden for tonight’s game, it won’t be cheap. The lowest priced tickets available on StubHub.com were going for $147 last night, and some 400 level seats were priced as high as $225. Tickets for the 400 level on TiqIQ.com ranged from $165 to $392 apiece.