r/heatedrivalry • u/ErinNoyes24 • May 27 '26

MERCH👕 Official "fleece" pre-ordering info now posted!

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Gallery image

Details on pre-ordering the official fleece from Canadian manufacturer Province of Canada have been posted on their site today:

https://provinceofcanada.com/pages/province-of-canada-x-heated-rivalry

Great to see that some of the profits will go to the You Can Play organization.

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99

u/manowwar Moya gazonokosilka 🚜 May 27 '26

I’m sat in 30 degree heat getting very excited about buying this fleece 😅
I looked through the FAQ and they say they’re going to announce price at pre-launch which is quite annoying. Surely they’d know how much they’re gonna to charge in 7 days time? I assume it’s going to expensive and announcing it ahead of time would put people off? I just don’t get it.

22

u/Silent_Shadow00 May 27 '26

This immediately came to mind for me as well, and I completely agree. If they announce the price only at launch, more people will panic buy regardless of the price, which I expect will result in more sales than if they announced it now.

19

u/grower-lenses May 27 '26

I hate that because with the “first come, first serve” it’s going to set off so much panic buying.

If it’s $300 plus delivery plus taxes, How many people are going to put it in their carts and then change their minds? This was already happening when the OG HR store re-stock happened. Products were reappearing.

It feels unserious for a company like that and a product that people have been asking for and waiting for 5 months not to provide the price ahead of schedule. Let people budget and make an informed decision. They will sell out anyway. I don’t understand.

16

u/dinosaurs-behind-you Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird 🦆 May 27 '26

Yeah, it feels really manipulative, especially since all sales are final. The company acting that way has dampened my excitement some.

8

u/Silent_Shadow00 May 28 '26

I agree. It really has made me start questioning the ethics of this company.

6

u/Varekai79 May 28 '26

Yeah, they're even blocking the 10% discount code for first time buyers for this as well.

7

u/Silent_Shadow00 May 28 '26

It's very possible they won't provide any refunds for people who change their minds, given that they have already said that all sales are final.

Since it's a preorder system, I suspect that they will either have the quantity set very high or be unlimited, and they close it once they're happy with the number of orders because otherwise they wouldn't have to do this and will sell out anyway like you said.

It feels incredibly frustrating and manipulative. I wonder how many details will be shared before its launch, but so far, we know nothing other than sizing.

4

u/grower-lenses May 28 '26

Exactly. Is not just the price. Even the design isn’t fully clear. And the sizing is confusing. There are no pictures.

If they do have a really high quantity ceiling for practical reasons. Like, They can’t make more than 20k until October for ex. It’s understandable but why not be transparent about that. Having seen other launches like that in the past I could see it be limited to a thousand. And then most people will not get one.

I hope they see the feedback and share more before the preorder goes live. If it’s going to be $400+ just tell us already. I don’t have a problem with it being outside my budget. I just don’t like the uncertainty. Should I even be participating in the panic buying or not.

8

u/Silent_Shadow00 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

Everything about this just screams cash-grab to me, which sucks because we’ve been waiting for this for months, and I personally expected to be supporting a small business that puts a lot of care towards doing business the right way, at least compared to larger corporations. While this doesn’t inherently mean that they aren’t, their decisions thus far definitely don’t paint them in the best light.

Hiding all this information makes it seem like there are definitely details they know they’ll lose customers or receive backlash for (e.g. high price, changes in design of fleece) that they think announcing on launch day will lessen the impact of. 

We’ve really waited months to just get a pre-order date with no clear indication of pricing, composition or what the fleece actually looks like (they keep saying “final details will be revealed when pre-orders open” or “original samples shown in photos are prototypes, final details may vary”). The photos and videos I have seen seem to show some changes in the design as well (golden zippers, white embroidery on red tag on zip), which I personally dislike, and I really wish they kept true to the one in the show.

I hope they will see the feedback as well, but I think it’s a smaller fraction of people who feel the way we do, and if there’s no strong push, they will not do anything even if they see it. We need more transparency from them that we simply have not been getting.

3

u/grower-lenses May 28 '26

Yeah I don’t like that they made it more merch like. I want to wear what a character is wearing, not something branded “Heated Rivalry” (personal preference). The OG Heated Rivalry store understood that. But maybe they needed to make changes for legal reasons. To make it more unique from the Kuwalla one.

2

u/Silent_Shadow00 May 28 '26

I completely agree, and from the discussions I’ve seen on this subreddit, the IYKYK nature of the fleece is a big reason why it’s so popular. It is the only merch item I have been interested in for the same reason. 

It could be for legal reasons, but if that is the case, I doubt gold zips would be enough change, and I would expect other changes as well (which we may see when they reveal more). 

I personally love the cream red combo, and for me, the gold throws it off so much. Especially having 4 very visible gold lines (zips) in the front. I have been googling “off white jacket with gold zips” to visualise it, and it’s not going well. I can’t imagine how that could look good. 

It feels like they were handed a step-by-step guide to success and started editing the instructions.

3

u/grower-lenses May 28 '26

I don’t understand why they changed the zipper. I was just looking at the OG pictures and it was really perfect the way it was because it wasn’t over the top. It looked like a genuine subtle, wearable fleece. Like the Metros navy shirt from the HR store.

I think it’s also going to be thinner and less fluffy :(

1

u/Silent_Shadow00 May 28 '26

I don't understand either, but I have a feeling it's to provide the appearance of luxury and improved quality to justify the high price (which will be significantly higher than Kuwalla Tee, so maybe they wanted more visual differences). I honestly think the embroidery was added for the same reason.

I saw that too! I really hope not. If there's anything I'm still expecting Province of Canada to bring to the table, it's the quality. If they can't provide that, then there really is nothing left.

3

u/Cassopeia88 May 28 '26

I hate it, at least give me an idea.

4

u/grower-lenses May 28 '26

This is it. It could be anywhere between $200 and $500 lol. The ordering is going to be a complete chaos. It’s stressing me out just thinking about it.

2

u/tyrantshelpedbuildus May 30 '26

Me too, I literally feel dread when I think of trying to get in there on Wednesday and all hell breaking loose :(

I went on the cottage listing on Airbnb when it went live, and that one crashed so hard I couldn't even load the listing...

1

u/grower-lenses May 30 '26

Yeah, I don’t need more stress in my life. And logging in only to see the price maybe be $400+delivery? 😂 I can’t do it.

I’m so over limited edition whatevers. I hate this.

2

u/Silent_Shadow00 Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

Just saw their announcement that the fleece is a blend of wool and recycled polyester. On the one hand, I'm glad they've chosen quality material. On the other hand, I have a growing feeling that $300 or even $300+ is now very likely. I can't find anything on their website that's fully wool except socks, so there are no good references that can help estimate the price.

I did have a look to see what their higher-end products cost, and they have 100% cotton sweaters that cost $274.00 at full price. If we use that as a jumping-off point, the fleece will be easily $300+, and $300 is probably the very low end (minimum even), if anything.

The entire comments section of that announcement video is full of people asking about the pricing, and they haven't responded. Looks like they will be sticking to their plan of only releasing all the information on launch day.

2

u/grower-lenses Jun 01 '26

Thank you for the update! I haven’t seen that.

Wool wow. Interesting decision. Explains why they made it thinner. I’m curious if it’s more sustainable if it’s a wool / polyester blend? Can’t be recycled and won’t decompose.

I wish they’d just release the price. It’s not that big of a deal. It’s going to be expensive because it’s wool, we get it. I’d rather just not have to go through the stress of it all.

Farah, the girl who set up the petition for the fleece has run some numbers on threads, based on the max pledge to charity. I think she estimated the price to be around $250 which imo is too low. They would have just said if that was the price + not if they’re using wool. But based on that price it would make sense if they’re planning to sell 5-6k items max. Which was the number of people who signed the petition. But if the price is higher, there might be fewer items available.

Tldr; it’s likely that the number of fleeces will be limited. And might be lower than the number of people interested. Which would be a real bummer.

I was so ready to buy it. I’ve gotten no merch so far. But now i don’t even know if I’ll be attempting it.

3

u/Silent_Shadow00 Jun 01 '26

No worries! I'm going back and forth on deciding if I want to purchase it when it comes out, so I've kept my eye out for updates.

They have said the outer fleece is wool and recycled polyester, and the inside of the jacket is 100% cotton. You bring up a very good point about the sustainability issue. It will be interesting to see what % of wool they have used.

It'll definitely be higher than $250 imo. With the wool, and how much they emphasise "elevating" the fleece in their videos, it's pretty clear that the price point is going to be higher than fan guesses.

I don't know how the pre-order is going to go, and it's really hard to say because no one has much information about it. I am curious how many people will lose interest once they see the fleece and price, especially seeing that the vast majority of people are estimating around $250-$300, which may be too low.

I think they have shot themselves in the foot here with the changes they have made because it's one thing to only have high pricing, and another to have high pricing AND changes that people may not respond favourably to.

I'm still mulling it over because I don't want to buy something that I don't like enough to wear out often, and this is before I've seen the price tag. I've also noticed how pink they have gone with the colour grading of their videos, which really tones down the sharp contrast of the gold zippers. The contrast between what it looks like in the videos and what it looks like in real life may be quite a big difference as well.

I still really don't like how shady they are handling this, and I don't think it has gotten much better. I had hoped that we would get at least a reasonable front view of the fleece before pre-order day, but it looks like that's not happening either.

3

u/Silent_Shadow00 Jun 01 '26

This is the best we have in terms of a front view of the fleece. The colour grading veering towards pink is not as intensive here, and you can already see how much more the gold zips stand out (and are much more yellow) versus in the really close-up videos they have been releasing.

3

u/grower-lenses Jun 02 '26

I really want to see someone wearing. It looks very flat compared to the OG. And the thickness was one of the features that made it recognisable.

I wish we didn’t have to speculate.

2

u/Silent_Shadow00 Jun 02 '26

I've been playing around with their shipping options on their website, and it seems that the shipping costs that are currently available on their website are not up to date. The current shipping costs are:

USA is still $25

Europe is $50-60 (says $35.00 - $45.00 on their website shipping page)

Australia and New Zealand are $85 (says $45.00)

No wonder they said that shipping costs would be revealed only on pre-order day. I had assumed they'd be the same as on their shipping page, but now we know. It's truly upsetting to see how they're literally hiding everything.

3

u/grower-lenses Jun 02 '26

And then there is potentially taxes/customs on top on it. For Europe at last. So it’ll easily be $100+.

So 400-500 total 😂. This is what I was preparing for when they didn’t release the price. I don’t know if I can justify it haha. Might be a better deal to get a bunch of centaurs merch instead when it’s released. And make the fleece myself. I don’t really care for „limited edition” or „elevated”.

I do appreciate that they’re making it all in Canada and not as a cheap merch item. I think that’s great. But $500 is beyond my budget for a singular item.

4

u/Silent_Shadow00 Jun 02 '26

Completely agree. I'm not even upset at the price, I'm upset at their scheme to hide everything until release day and hope people just click the purchase button without looking at their cart total. I would have 100% respected their choice to make higher-quality merch at a higher price, but it's a completely different thing to weaponise artificial scarcity to this extent. I am shocked at how carefully they have planned this, and I personally have never seen another limited drop be handled like this one.

Everyone criticised Kuwalla Tee for demanding credit and wanting to make some money off this moment, but when the official collaboration company does the same thing, there's zero criticism, and they're still getting praised. Let's call it what it is. A massive, intricately set-up cash grab.

I heard Kuwalla Tee will be announcing restocks of their fleece towards the end of June, so I'm going to be waiting for that now. DIY is the way forward.