Fighters’ store‑exclusive kit

The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters did not just launch another jersey this week. They tied a whole run of April home games to a new “Escon Field Uniform 2026” merch drop, then put some of the most eye-catching items behind official store counters instead of the broader release. (fighters.co.jp) The timing is tight on purpose: the club says players will wear the Escon Field Uniform 2026 in 8 home games from April 11 to April 23, 2026. The same campaign page pairs those games with giveaways and shopping bonuses, so the uniform is being sold as an event, not just clothing. (fighters.co.jp) The merchandise announcement went live on April 7, 2026, with sales starting April 10, one day before the home-game run began. That gives fans almost no dead space between seeing the uniform, buying the gear, and wearing it into the ballpark. (fighters.co.jp) The broad release is already big: replica-style items, face towels, tote bags, acrylic keyholders, secret blind-pack goods, and even a life-size towel priced at 16,500 yen. The team also added collaboration items and apparel tied to the same uniform design. (fighters.co.jp) Then comes the sharper sales tactic: “official store limited” goods. In that bucket, the Fighters listed a jacquard muffler towel for 3,000 yen, clear twin sticks for 1,400 yen, a bear keychain for 2,200 yen, a swing towel for 1,400 yen, and a random uniform-layer keyholder for 900 yen. (fighters.co.jp) Those store-only items are not generic team-logo souvenirs. The bear keychains are sold in player versions including manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo, Yuki Nomura, Hiromi Ito, Kotaro Kiyomiya, Shun Mizutani, Yuma Tamiya, and Chusei Mannami, which turns one uniform design into multiple collectible characters. (fighters.co.jp) The club is also splitting inventory by channel. Some items are online-store reorders, some are sold both online and in stores, and some are only for official stores such as the Fighters Flagship Store, Fighters Annex Store, ON-DECK, and the glass-wall goods area inside Escon Field Hokkaido. (fighters.co.jp) That matters because Escon Field Hokkaido is not just a stadium opened in 2023. It is the centerpiece of Hokkaido Ballpark F Village, a larger commercial complex built to keep fans eating, shopping, and lingering around the team beyond the nine innings of a baseball game. (hkdballpark.com) The Fighters have been building this uniform campaign for months. An earlier team notice in February said replica uniforms would be re-sold in limited quantities and that bear plush and bear keychains wearing the Escon Field Uniform 2026 would also be sold by order, so the April launch is an expansion of a plan already in motion. (fighters.co.jp) They even pushed the uniform beyond Hokkaido before this home stretch. Japanese sports daily Nikkan Sports reported on March 13 that the Fighters would wear the Escon-limited uniform for their March 27 to March 29 opening road series against the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, delaying the usual blue road uniform until April 28. (nikkansports.com) So the story here is not one towel or one keychain. The Fighters took a special 2026 uniform, attached it to a fixed set of April dates, spread different products across online and in-person channels, and reserved some of the most collectible versions for the team’s own shops at Escon Field. (fighters.co.jp)