Photolog 2018: Day 304 of 365

Anyone who went to any of the concerts on BTS' Love Yourself tour so far will tell you that, of the 40+ tour merch items available, the first ones to sell out were the shirts. They made two tees of the same design for this tour, one in white and one in black, the same ones that BTS wears during their encore performance. The black tee and the black hoodie (which was a North American tour exclusive) were actually the only items I really wanted from their merch tents when I went to the concerts in September. I lined up with Ronsee for two hours for merch at the Hamilton show and the tees were sold out within the first 30 minutes, and then the hoodie 15 minutes after that. It was the same at the Newark show. Basically, if you weren't in line for merch at the ass crack of dawn, you weren't getting any of the clothing items. So I just accepted that I wouldn't be able to get one, and made do with some of the other items that were still available (the poster set, the iPhone case, the hand towel, and the program book).

Then BigHit announced a couple weeks later that they'd be releasing the tour merch on their website — but for Korea only. So I asked my BTS merch guy if he would be ordering anything, and he said that he had already pre-ordered the shirts because he knew that they would sell out first. So I asked if I could buy one from him, and he said he'd hold it for me. (You know, I am nothing if not loyal to my BTS merch guy. He only sells official or authorized merch so I never have to worry about knock-offs, and because I buy so much from him, he often gives me a better price than his listed price. Plus, if he doesn't already have an item in stock, he will order it for me and always check if I need anything else.) And it arrived today. It's actually quite a plain design, with just the tour name on the back and a "BTS World Tour" patch on the front bottom corner, but it's the exact reason I like it. I like that it's not flashy and that I can wear it with anything. (It's also really good quality material, like a noticeably thicker, higher thread count cotton.) But most of all, I like that it'll remind me of their tour this year and that I got to see them not once, but twice, and they were honestly the most surreal, incredible shows I've seen in my lifetime.