MLB, STRAUSS announce new helmet partnership

During the 2024 postseason, you're going to see something new: MLB helmets will feature a brand logo.

Major League Baseball announced a partnership with German workwear company STRAUSS on Friday, which includes MLB batting helmets displaying the STRAUSS name and logo throughout the playoffs for the next four seasons.

The STRAUSS logo will also go on all Minor League Baseball batting helmets all season long starting in 2025, as well as MLB helmets for all games played in Europe, for each of the next three years.

It will be the first time a brand logo adorns MLB and MiLB batting helmets league-wide in the U.S.

"Baseball is just such an iconic sport with all Americans," said STRAUSS CEO Henning Strauss, who visited MLB headquarters in New York on Friday. "It has such a long tradition. Just like our company -- we're a third-generation family business. And baseball is very much a family experience, families attending games or following their teams. Everyone is really familiar with baseball and has played baseball in their family. So it's really about that connection."

MLB has experimented with logos on its helmets before -- for example, the Mets and Cubs played with "am/pm" logos on their batting helmets when they played on Opening Day in Japan in 2000 -- but STRAUSS is MLB's first full-scale brand partner of this kind.

"Whether on the field or in the field, your gear is a source of pride. We know that fans of America’s pastime are loyal, dedicated and value a job well done -- just like the STRAUSS fans around the world who love our family’s iconic ostrich logo," Strauss said. "We are proud to be the first brand featured on MLB batting helmets in the U.S. We are excited to join the baseball tradition and help the American pastime grow back home in Europe."

STRAUSS is making its first foray into the United States market as a company. The European workwear leader first entered the U.S. market in late 2023. To reach an entirely new audience, STRAUSS chose baseball.

"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," MLB deputy commissioner of business and media Noah Garden said. "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."

Strauss' personal ties to baseball go back to the first time he came to the U.S. He knows what baseball means in America, and he chose MLB to partner with for that reason.

"I was born in Germany. And on my first trip to the United States with my parents -- I was eight years old -- the one thing that I did take back was a baseball bat," Strauss recalled. "I love the sport. And it reflects so much of the American identity. Coming here now, I think there's a really authentic and organic connection that we can see in the two brands coming together."

Strauss will be proud to see his family's company and its ostrich logo ("Strauss" is the German word for ostrich) featured on MLB helmets, especially during the postseason.

"We love the helmet," Strauss said. "Even now looking at it, you can already sense the impact it has on the viewer. And the postseason and the World Series is not only the peak season for baseball, but it's also our peak season of the year. That's when people gear up for the weather turning colder, and people are looking at jackets and weather gear. Being on the helmet this postseason will for sure have a massive impact on our brand awareness in this market -- which, for us, is entirely new. At the moment, we're zero. But for sure people will get to know the Ostrich once it's on the helmet."

STRAUSS' partnership with Major League Baseball is the company's first league-wide deal in the U.S. As popular as the company is in Europe, where it makes workwear, work equipment and safety gear, it wanted to make a partnership with baseball the cornerstone of its efforts to increase its brand awareness in America.

For Strauss, displaying the company's logo on Minor League helmets in 2025 and beyond is just as important as baseball fans seeing it when they watch the MLB postseason. He wants to reach the widest audience of baseball fans all across the country, both in the major MLB cities and in more rural areas.

"We have a strong customer base in farming, landscaping, all the trades that you also find in smaller towns. So Minor League Baseball really is, I think, a very likable platform for us to present the brand," Strauss said. "The baseball fan base is quite diverse, and it has that family connection that we really appreciate as a brand. A lot of our customers, they are also family-owned businesses. We have mom and dad and the kids being involved. So it really is that family aspect that we see in baseball -- much more than in some other sports -- and the team spirit."

STRAUSS has a longstanding connection to sports in Europe, especially soccer, having worked with UEFA, Bayern Munich, Liverpool FC and more. But coming to the U.S., they are looking to baseball.

"Over the years, we've done so many sponsorships, and it's usually team sports. In Europe, soccer is the No. 1 by far. In the U.S., baseball is also one of the most iconic sports," Strauss said. "And there's such an overlap in fan base. Our customers, our own fan base, they love sports. In Europe, it might be more soccer. In the U.S., we anticipate this being baseball."