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Strategy October 03, 2024

MLB Helmets Now Feature a Paying Sponsor’s Logo

The big-league playoffs began this week, and workwear brand STRAUSS’ logo now adorns the sides of every team’s hard lids.

By  Christopher Ruvo

One of the most visible and iconic pieces of real estate in American professional sports has become a co-branded promotional product.

The Major League Baseball playoffs commenced this week. And for the first time ever on American soil, the helmets that every player on each participating team wears are emblazoned with the logo of an advertising sponsor – STRAUSS, a workwear apparel company based in Germany.

The STRAUSS company name and graphic logo – a white ostrich inside a red square – adorn the sides of the helmets. The teams’ logos remain front and center.

This postseason marks the first inning, if you will, of a co-branding partnership that will keep STRAUSS’ logo before the eyes of MLB’s legions of fans.

The 5-inches-wide, nearly 1-inch-tall logo will appear on helmets at all 2024 playoff games and, starting next year, all regular-season games played in Europe. For the 2025 baseball season, STRAUSS’ branding will also be featured on the helmets of every Minor League Baseball team for every game of the regular and postseason. The MLB/STRAUSS advertising partnership runs through 2027.

“We are proud that STRAUSS selected Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball as the marketing platform to introduce its brand to the U.S. market,” Noah Garden, MLB deputy commissioner, business & media, said in a press release. “The fact that our two organizations have so much in common – generational legacy, teamwork, dedication to a craft, celebrating a job well-done – is a key to what made this partnership so compelling and we’re looking forward to working together for years to come.”

Of note: This technically isn’t the first time logos have appeared on MLB helmets. The hard lids showcased advertisements during recent international games, including the Seoul Series, Mexico City Series and London Series this year. Still, those logos and graphics were on one side of the helmet and were limited to international niche games – not the most watched games of the season, as are the playoffs.

Of course, it’s already common in some sports for logos of advertising sponsors to populate uniforms. In international football (soccer), multiple logos often appear on team jerseys. In the racing world, drivers’ fire suit uniforms and cars are virtual pinboards tacked with various logos.

The practice, however, is fairly new to Major League Baseball. It was only last year that MLB permitted the logos of a paying sponsor/advertiser to appear on the sleeve of players’ jerseys in the form of a patch. Reportedly, the shoulder patch sponsorships fetch teams an average of $7 to $8 million annually; the big-money New York Yankees reportedly get $25 million a year for their shoulder patch deal.

Revenue, of course, is the big reason that MLB is game for the shoulder patches and the helmet logos. Some view it as a smart – even inevitable – move by big league baseball. Others couldn’t care one way or the other. But some, well, they’re not exactly loving the new advertising practice.

“Helmet ads are just the newest stunt,” wrote Jason Gay, columnist for The Wall Street Journal. “Baseball has a beautiful tradition in its uniform and it should be careful with how much it’s willing to sell it off. Money matters, but good style is priceless.”