When did merchandise first show up?

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

I read a thread about the nowadays merchandise of the St. Louis Browns. That made me wonder when merchandise first showed up?

Can anybody tell?

Thanks.

[Pere]

Well, baseball cards have been around just about forever, although they were originally a means for using ballplayers to market other products (such as tobacco) rather than a merchandising of baseball itself.

Team caps have been available for a long time, although they weren't carried in your average clothing store when I was a kid, and they often appear there now.

Beyond that, an awful lot of the junk they sell nowadays has arisen just since the 1980s. I read somewhere, a while back, that total MLB merchandising increased more than 1,000% from 1985 to 1995.

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

I didn't think of baseball cards, but of course that is merchandise too.

But I was actually thinking about (fitted) caps, T-shirts and jerseys.

I can imagine that (fitted) caps are there quite some time, but I would like to know when they first were sold as merchandise.

[hellborn]

If you look at photos from before the '60s, people IN THE US generally wore fairly formal clothes on a daily basis. Adults didn't wear logo tshirts and ball caps, and even kids' clothes were more formal. I'd bet that the trend of ballcaps and team tshirts for everybody started in the '70s, after the social changes of the '60s radically changed dress standards. Isn't it amazing to see photos of old ballgames and see almost all the men wearing suits and dress hats? If not a suit, at least a button down shirt, sweater, something like that.
Things like sports newspapers and weeklies, pennants, and cards have been popular as long as pro baseball has been around.

[Sultan_1895-1948]

If you look at photos from before the '60s, people generally wore fairly formal clothes on a daily basis. Adults didn't wear logo tshirts and ball caps, and even kids' clothes were more formal. I'd bet that the trend of ballcaps and team tshirts for everybody started in the '70s, after the social changes of the '60s radically changed dress standards. Isn't it amazing to see photos of old ballgames and see almost all the men wearing suits and dress hats? If not a suit, at least a button down shirt, sweater, something like that.
Things like sports newspapers and weeklies, pennants, and cards have been popular as long as pro baseball has been around.

There was a Ruth brand baseball cap for kids back when he played. Apparently a hot item. At the ballpark though, yeah, the derby was the way to go for older folk.

[hellborn]

There was a Ruth brand baseball cap for kids back when he played. Apparently a hot item. At the ballpark though, yeah, the derby was the way to go for older folk.

I wonder if the kids would just wear them to play ball, or to see a game, or maybe all the time?
If you ever find a photo of a kid wearing one, I'd love to see it...especially if it's not from an ad, but a real life shot.

Can you imagine going to a ballgame now and seeing 90% of the men wearing suits, and all the women wearing nice dresses?

[SHOELESSJOE3]

I wonder if the kids would just wear them to play ball, or to see a game, or maybe all the time?
If you ever find a photo of a kid wearing one, I'd love to see it...especially if it's not from an ad, but a real life shot.

Can you imagine going to a ballgame now and seeing 90% of the men wearing suits, and all the women wearing nice dresses?

I'm sure we have all noticed 1910s-20s and maybe into the early 1930s it seems like in park pictures 99 percent of the men are wearing hats.

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

Thanks Shoeless, that answers my question perfectly.

[Brian McKenna]

There was a Ruth brand baseball cap for kids back when he played. Apparently a hot item. At the ballpark though, yeah, the derby was the way to go for older folk.

There were also full uniforms sold for kids. There is a picture thread here with some of this. It's not stretch to believe that kids wore them or just the jerseys to bum around in.

[Biggtone23]

I dont have any info to add but wanted to say how good of a question this was. A great change of pace from the usually is X better than Y, if Z played today how would he do.

[Steven Gallanter]

If you look at photos from before the '60s, people IN THE US generally wore fairly formal clothes on a daily basis. Adults didn't wear logo tshirts and ball caps, and even kids' clothes were more formal. I'd bet that the trend of ballcaps and team tshirts for everybody started in the '70s, after the social changes of the '60s radically changed dress standards. Isn't it amazing to see photos of old ballgames and see almost all the men wearing suits and dress hats? If not a suit, at least a button down shirt, sweater, something like that.
Things like sports newspapers and weeklies, pennants, and cards have been popular as long as pro baseball has been around.

Old ballgames were played in the afternoon and many of the men were playing hooky from work, hence the ties. There were very few women at games until the late 60's. I went to Fenway park 30 years ago and there were huge lines by the Women's bathrooms. In about 1983 more Women's rooms were added.

MLB Licensing was founded in 1969 and that prompted the growth in merchandise which continues unabated to this very day. MLB was far behind NFL Properties in this regard.

There was a lot of informally produced stuff around into well into the 70's when MLB realized that money was slipping through their fingers.

Marvin Miller per A WHOLE DIFFERENT BALLGAME put the Players Association on the gravy train with MLBPA baseball cards in the 1980's. At the same time Commissioner Peter Uberroth encouraged the merchandising that he had used to make the 1984 LA Olympics profitable.

[Brian McKenna]

The T-shirt, hence casual approach, took off in the 1960s. The formation of MLB Licensing was probably more as a cause of this than driving it. The movement was taking off and liberties were being taken with logos and such, so MLB had to form a wing to combat this. Companies approached MLB rather than the other way around - that's how baseball always did things; thus, it's hard to see how MLB "prompted the growth" until much later when Selig took the reins.

Baseball's lag has always been that business men weren't running the game at the top level. Sure business-minded individuals were running the teams but the collective was run by men like Landis, Frick, and Kuhn who were conservartion, weren't bisiness savvy and traditionalists. It took decades for business-minded men like Eckert, Uberroth and Selig to make the breakthrough.

Women have always been a large and important contingent at ball games.

[BSmile]

Here's The Babe with some kids wearing his name cap. Nice ties too!

[EdTarbusz]

The first time I ever saw a throwback jersey was in 1989 at the Baseball Hall of Fame gift-shop. On the same trio I tried to find a Brooklyn Dodgers jersey while I was in Brooklyn and couldn't find one. I don't remember if I saw ads for them before this trip or not.

[EdTarbusz]

The T-shirt, hence casual approach, took off in the 1960s. The formation of MLB Licensing was probably more as a cause of this than driving it. The movement was taking off and liberties were being taken with logos and such, so MLB had to form a wing to combat this. Companies approached MLB rather than the other way around - that's how baseball always did things; thus, it's hard to see how MLB "prompted the growth" until much later when Selig took the reins.

Baseball's lag has always been that business men weren't running the game at the top level. Sure business-minded individuals were running the teams but the collective was run by men like Landis, Frick, and Kuhn who were conservartion, weren't bisiness savvy and traditionalists. It took decades for business-minded men like Eckert, Uberroth and Selig to make the breakthrough.

Women have always been a large and important contingent at ball games.

I remember reading that guys like Ed Barrow and George Weiss did not want to merchadise Yankees apparel. They didn't want to see a bunch of dirty faced kids running around the Bronx while wearing Yankees caps.