Retro brown-and-gold BP jerseys a hot seller at MLB All-Star FanFest

More merchandise was sold at Major League Baseball's All-Star FanFest in San Diego over the past five days than at any All-Star Game in the past 16 years, which is as long as the league has kept that data.

So many retro brown-and-gold batting practice jerseys and hats -- a nod to the history of the host San Diego Padres--were sold that sales blew by the previous records set in San Francisco in 2007 and New York in 2008.

"We candidly didn't think sales would be like this," said Adam Blinderman, MLB's vice president of consumer products. "We look at the market, the fan base and how a team is playing, and we thought San Diego would sell like Cincinnati did last year."

But this year's merchandise sales topped last year's by 36 percent. So many locals wanted replicas of Padres first baseman Wil Myers' batting practice jersey that Majestic had to fly in more No. 4s in the suitcases of their arriving executives.

The company's custom jersey section, part of a 35,000-square-foot space of MLB's licensees at FanFest at the San Diego Convention Center, had so many orders that jersey letters were running thin by game day.

"The brown and gold was embraced by people in San Diego, as well as visiting fans, as evidenced by the popularity of the batting practice cap, which had those colors with the different team logos," Blinderman said.

The league's official licensee, New Era Cap, sold twice as many caps this year as compared to last year.

Blinderman also credits some of the success to the interactivity of the space, which included hat customization from New Era, personalized Majestic jerseys and the ability of fans to put their names on socks from socks licensee Stance.