{"id":925661,"date":"2026-10-08T19:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T19:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/925661\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T19:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T19:44:12","slug":"as-global-fashion-baseball-hits-a-home-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/925661\/","title":{"rendered":"As global fashion, baseball hits a home run"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Major League Baseball wins new fans at home and from Asia to Latin America, replicas of player jerseys, caps and warm-up jackets are being worn by trendsetters worldwide.<\/p>\n

U.S. baseball fans have long sought out merchandise that advertises their favorite players and teams. Increasingly, baseball-themed apparel is purchased worldwide, according to the data aggregator Statista, based in Germany. The sporty look of a baseball jersey is now popular on the streets of London and Tokyo<\/a>\u00a0and even on Milan\u2019s fashion runways.<\/p>\n

\"2At Tokyo\u2019s Baseball Caf\u00e9 souvenir shop, customers look at a replica of former Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki\u2019s jersey. (\u00a9 Itsuo Inouye\/AP)<\/p>\n

Demand stems partly from the growth in international fans \u2014 Japanese baseball enthusiasts, for instance, take great pride in the Los Angeles Dodgers\u2019 Shohei Ohtani and the San Diego Padres\u2019 Yu Darvish. But demand is also driven by fashion-conscious youth, who might know little about the game but like the look.<\/p>\n

A feeling of connection<\/p>\n

Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. says baseball apparel forges a connection among players and fans. He says that, during his own 22-season career (with the Seattle Mariners, the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago White Sox), he always appreciated spotting fans wearing his jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see your jersey outside of your home ballpark, on the road, it\u2019s special,\u201d Griffey says. \u201cYou want to do something special because of those people \u2026 who support, not only you, but the organization and the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Left:From left: Ken Griffey Jr. goes to bat for the Seattle Mariners in 1990. Griffey, seen in 2009, often wore his cap backward and was imitated by legions of fans. (\u00a9 Ron Vesely\/MLB Photos\/Getty Images, \u00a9 Tony Gutierrez\/AP)<\/p>\n

The former outfielder, who ranks seventh all-time on Major League Baseball\u2019s home-run list, influenced today\u2019s \u201cbaseball style\u201d by popularizing the cap worn backward. Griffey\u2019s is not a passing interest. Though retired from the league, he partners with Baseballism and Nike to help design baseball-themed clothing and shoes.<\/p>\n

Baseball\u2019s influence on fashion<\/p>\n

Baseball historian Todd Radom, author of Winning Ugly: A Visual History of the Most Bizarre Baseball Uniforms Ever Worn, notes that what the players wear on the field has shifted over the decades, moving from conservative to brighter, bolder uniforms in the 1970s, and back to classic color schemes in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\"Graphic(State Dept.)<\/p>\n

While uniforms today are largely designed with red, blue or black lettering set against a white or gray background, the league sells merchandise in a range of popular colors. It also engages in creative collaborations with casual clothing lines like Mitchell & Ness and Goat USA and high-fashion brands like Italy\u2019s Gucci and Moschino, and U.S.-based Ralph Lauren.<\/p>\n

Baseball-themed<\/a> runway collections combine luxury materials (leather, cashmere or silk) and expressive overlays (crystals or floral and cartoon-character appliqu\u00e9s).<\/p>\n

Moschino, for example, routinely blends oversized baseball jersey dresses with cartoon figures. And sportswear lines integrate stylized ballpark logos, team mascots and Looney Tunes, Sesame Street or Scooby-Doo characters.<\/p>\n

\"Left:From left: A model sports a Gucci-branded cap at a New York fashion show. A model walks the runway at a Moschino show in Milan. (\u00a9 Angela Weiss\/AFP\/Getty Images, \u00a9 Pietro D\u2019Aprano\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Baseball\u2019s comfortable jerseys and brimmed caps easily \u201cadapt to whatever purpose you like,\u201d playing sports or looking stylish, says Erin Corrales-Diaz, a curator at the Toledo Museum of Art and author of The Iconic Jersey: Baseball x Fashion.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia-based Mitchell & Ness Nostalgia Company reproduces historic jerseys for customers who want to recapture their childhood sports memories, says Lynn Bloom, a company director. Superstars\u2019 jerseys are always popular, she says, and Griffey\u2019s consistently ranks among the company\u2019s top-10 sellers.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s thrilled. \u201cI always like seeing my stuff out there,\u201d he says. And when fans wear a player\u2019s jersey, \u201cyou know they feel that they\u2019re a part of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Major League Baseball wins new fans at home and from Asia to Latin America, replicas of player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":925662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[118762,76,3307,49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-925661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-american-sports","tag-arts","tag-baseball","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/925662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}