If you’ve been watching the Major League Baseball postseason, you’ve probably been thinking what most of us have: What’s that Strauss decal on the players’ helmets?
MLB is historically and notoriously resistant to change—that is, until the past few years under Commissioner Rob Manfred. During Manfred’s tenure, the league has implemented rule changes to speed up the game and make it more exciting and has leaned into social media and “highlight” culture to engage younger audiences, all with significant results, including setting attendance, viewership, engagement, and revenue records in 2023 and pacing ahead in several key metrics for 2024.
The Strauss logo is the next in that line of big changes.
Strauss is a German workwear brand that first became available in the U.S. late last year. MLB announced a partnership in September with the brand to advertise on postseason gear through 2027. But unless you read MLB press releases in your spare time, you likely didn’t see it until the logo debuted in this year’s postseason.
Less than two weeks into the campaign, it’s unknown how much Strauss paid for the sponsorship, but it’s already reaping the benefits.
Strauss, for the win
The Strauss decal debuted during the most-watched MLB Wild Card round ever, with ratings soaring 25% above last year’s figures. This generated nearly $800,000 in media value from live game telecasts alone, according to media intelligence firm Hive, per Sportico. Strauss decals were also added to MLB The Show 24 last week, adding to the brand’s presence, while social media exposure added another $214,000 in media value to the pot.
And that’s just the beginning. Depending on how many games are played this postseason, Hive projects Strauss could score a total of roughly $17 million in media value across TV and digital platforms by the end of the playoffs.
With four teams from MLB’s top five media markets represented in this year’s postseason—and with New York and Los Angeles still alive—along with superstars like Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge still in action, the draw could not have worked out better for Strauss.
A (brief) history of MLB gear sponsorships
In 2023, the San Diego Padres became the first team in the MLB’s nearly 120-year history to sell an area of its uniform to a sponsor when they added a Motorola patch to their sleeve. This came on the heels of the most recent collective bargaining agreement, which opened the door for jersey sponsorships in an effort to increase deal volume and revenue across the league.
Since then, 23 of MLB’s 30 teams have signed uniform patch deals. The league average for patches is roughly $7 million to $8 million per year, with the Boston Red Sox commanding $17 million and the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays landing the largest deals in the low-to-mid $20 million range, according to The Athletic. Sponsors range from Motorola to MassMutual, Kroger, ADT, QuikTrip, and more.
As far back as 2021, MLB itself dipped into the sponsored patch game, becoming the first major sports league to partner with a cryptocurrency exchange company. This deal added sponsored patches to umpires’ uniform sleeves.
One problem . . . the sponsor was FTX, which was later revealed as a crypto Ponzi scheme orchestrated by founder Sam Bankman-Fried. The league pulled the patches before the 2023 season. This is just another reason MLB has eased into this new era of gear sponsorships.
Now, it appears to be picking up steam.
What’s next in MLB sponsorships
The Strauss decal isn’t going away once the postseason ends. It will remain on helmets during MLB’s postseason through 2027 as part of its four-year partnership. It will also don the helmets of all 120 Minor League Baseball clubs for the entire regular season beginning in 2025, as well as MLB helmets for all games played in Europe in the next three years.
It’s the next step in MLB catching up to other major American sports leagues, which have just caught up to their European counterparts that have featured sponsors on jerseys for decades.
After years of hesitation, the NBA led the charge in 2017-18, followed by the NHL in 2022-23 and MLB in 2023-24. The moves are already paying dividends, as team sponsorship revenue has grown 7% year-over-year for the NBA and 10% for the NHL this past season, according to data from SponsorUnited, via Modern Retail.
As American leagues continue to embrace this new revenue stream, expect to see more creative sponsorship integrations that balance tradition with financial opportunity. It’s unlikely that MLB—or any major American sports league—will go the international football route and replace team names on the fronts of jerseys with sponsors, or roll out NASCAR-like uniforms crowded with brands. The reality will likely land somewhere in between. Either way, it’s a trend that’s not going away any time soon.