By Mark Seavy 

As the Major League Baseball (MLB) season gets underway, a recent raft of licensed collaborations is pointing more broadly to the trend of teaming up sports and entertainment IPs. 

Sports and entertainment brands have long been good teammates (look no further than Warner Bros. Consumer Products featuring the NBA in a Looney Tunes plush collaboration several years ago or the movie Space Jam spawned Bugs Bunny/Michal Jordan apparel after it debuted in 1996) but this style of co-branding is appearing with increased frequency in a bid to attract both fandoms—and, potentially, an entirely new audience.  

The growing focus on pairing sports and entertainment IPs, typically at royalty rates of around 15%, is also adding a new wrinkle to apparel and other product categories.  

Pop culture chain BoxLunch, for example, launched a new collection with more than 26 products designed to attract not only baseball fans, but also those of Disney, Looney Tunes, and Peanuts with co-branded jerseys, bomber jackets, and other items. 

Bioworld Merchandising, meanwhile, recently struck an agreement with the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) and is in discussions with the National Football League as a first step in expanding into sports licensing, said Paul Beck, Senior Manager Brand Management and Acquisition at Bioworld. Bioworld will also lean into its strength in licensed anime properties, Beck said. 

“It’s all about getting the casual fan involved,” Beck said. “They are all wearing what they are into, and if you can combine that with the fandom it gives you a whole other set of eyeballs. And this gives us another way to be creative.” 

Emphasizing creativity will give other companies a means for entering sports licensing. That new angle is important considering the category is dominated by the likes of Fanatics, Nike, Adidas, and others when it comes to standard-issue gear.  

Hidden Pigeon Co., the licensing business behind children’s author and illustrator Mo Willems, launched a collection with the New York Yankees last August. It featured baseball caps (New Era) and apparel (OT Sports) emblazoned with Willems’ Pigeon, Piggie, and Elephant characters from his books, including Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Hidden Pigeon is planning a collection with another MLB team for this year.  

And in tapping into MLB’s annual kickoff in Japan, Entertainment media brand Complex launched a line with Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami to mark the Tokyo Series in March between the Los Angeles Angels and the Chicago Cubs. Murakami’s style was infused into t-shirts, hoodies, and limited-edition jerseys for players like Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Seiya Suzuki, and Dansby Swanson.  

“It is bringing together shared connections in books and, in the age range we target [three- to six-year-olds], a lot of times it is the parent sitting in bed with the child reading to them,” said Tori Cook, SVP of Franchise Management at Hidden Pigeon. “What better shared experience for a family than to go to the ballpark and share their passion. We are looking for those things that are co-viewing, playing, and reading—and bringing all three together in a shared experience is the capstone of what we are trying to do.” 

To further underscore the blending of sports and entertainment properties, suppliers are also staging pop-up experiences to promote the collections. Complex showcased the Tokyo Series merchandise in pop-ups in Los Angeles and Tokyo. 

“This collaboration merged Murakami’s artistry with the global energy of baseball in capturing the essence of the city and the deep cultural connection between art and sport,” Complex CEO Aaron Levant said.