Long lines and dashed hopes as fans line up to buy the ‘Princess Diana’ throwback Eagles jacket

There was a very long line for a very brief time on Thursday morning, as a crowd of people with $400 in their wallets and an icon in their hearts waited at the Mitchell & Ness flagship store in Center City to purchase a licensed version of the iconic Princess Diana Eagles varsity jacket.

Many were already wearing Eagles hats and Eagles T-shirts and even Eagles jackets — but no one, obviously, was wearing that jacket. And nobody knew exactly how many jackets the store had, which meant that although the line was polite and contained, there was occasional panic about the remaining inventory and who would get it. “He’s the landlord!” an employee shouted when a man appeared to cut ahead and enter the store without waiting.

This highly prized jacket is an NFL-licensed replica of a varsity-style letterman jacket from 1982, famously worn by Princess Diana in the early 1990s. (She met an Eagles statistician at Grace Kelly’s funeral and the team later gave her the custom-made jacket because she loved silver and green). The wool-and-polyester replica, created by Philly-based sports clothing company Mitchell & Ness, dropped on Thursday at their Center City store, as well as at the official Eagles Pro Shop locations in Cherry Hill and Lincoln Financial Field.

It was all very thrilling and full of possibility, except that 26 minutes after the store opened, a Mitchell & Ness employee confirmed that all extra-smalls, smalls, and mediums had sold out. (Size extra-small went first). The Eagles had said the jackets would be “limited edition,” but even so, frustration set in — especially because the jackets featured “an oversized silhouette,” according to the retailer’s website, which recommended purchasing a size smaller than usual.

“They’re out of my size,” said Lauren Garoppo, 29, who described the experience of waiting in line for more than an hour as “a lot of highs and lows.” “I think a lot of women are actually into this jacket, whereas the usual fan base is bigger guys.”

Yesterday, an Eagles Instagram post announcing the jacket sale garnered more than 500,000 likes in less than 24 hours. On Thursday, Mitchell & Ness had just 100 jackets to sell, according to a store employee who declined to give his name because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.

A spokesman for Fanatics, which manufactures and distributes NFL apparel and owns Mitchell & Ness, declined to comment on the total quantity of jackets or the number of each size for sale, but said the jackets would be restocked at some point. (Almost immediately, re-sellers were offering the jacket on Ebay for upward of $1,000.)

With limited options left, sizes XL and 5XL had to suffice for some.

“I’ve always wanted this jacket,” said Chino Hernandez, 37. He described being a boy in the Philippines in the 1990s, when he spotted Princess Diana wearing the jacket on the cover of People magazine. “I did not even know what the Eagles were at that time. All I know is that I wanted the jacket.”

Hernandez had dressed to look just like Princess Di, with Gucci loafers, a Gucci belt, a black shirt and scarf. Once he made it inside, he tried the XL on and posed for other shoppers.

“The way she wore it is exactly the way you have it on right now,” an employee told him.

A few minutes later, Hernandez was outside once again, his new jacket tucked neatly inside a black Mitchell & Ness garment bag.

Pamela Hurst, 59, was hoping to snag two jackets, one for herself and one to auction off at a nonprofit’s gala. She had come to wait in the Center City line for sentimental reasons.

“I was sitting in Media in the gas station parking lot [after Princess Diana] died, and my husband walked out and held the newspaper up and showed her and I cried,” Hurst said. By the time she entered the store, only extra-large sizes were left, so she didn’t purchase any.

Though Mitchell & Ness limited shoppers to two jackets per customer, people who attended the Pro Shop sale at the Linc said there was no limit, which led to more chaos and the gear selling out in minutes. One man in the Center City line had just come from the stadium; he held up a busted finger to show what he’d been through.

Lisa F., who declined to give her last name because she was supposed to be at work and not waiting in line for the Diana jacket, arrived at the stadium pro-shop at 7 a.m., and was seventh in line. Staff opened the doors and everyone flooded in at once, she said, and she left empty handed.

“It was unorganized,” she said. “They should have had more jackets.”