Baseball fan calls out disturbing helmet design with viral photo: 'MLB should be embarrassed'

You'd be forgiven if during the MLB postseason you thought every team played for some mysterious entity called Strauss. Strauss isn't a real-world Stark Industries but rather a German workwear brand that splurged to get advertisements on baseball helmets in a deal that runs through 2027.

A fan posting to a team subreddit blasted the partnership, writing the resulting helmets were "so ugly" and "just awful."

"The advertisement takes more space than the team insignia." — Photo Credit: Reddit

Lest you think they were merely fervently anti-advertisement, they divulged that they "don't mind the shoulder ad patches too much; in some ways they can kind of go well with the jerseys." The helmets were a different story.

"The 'Strauss' is so out of place and just symbolizes the MLB selling out," they concluded.

Fast Company reported details of the sponsorship, which includes helmet placements for four MLB postseasons, appearances in the MLB The Show 24 video game, an all-season run on Minor League Baseball teams' helmets, and a presence on helmets for all MLB games in Europe through 2027.

Maybe you can justify the European placement given the geographical market and the Minor League usage for clubs always in need of revenue. But 23 of 30 MLB teams already have jersey patch deals, per Fast Company.

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On Reddit, the consensus was that a helmet deal for the most prominent games each season simply feels like trading a notable level of integrity for advertising. A similar accusation was lodged at MLB for going cheap on officially licensed clothing.

In this case, the oversized logo on the helmet reeks of ad inundation. That isn't a new thing at sponsorship-heavy ballparks, but just like at gas stations or on the road, there is an alarming rate of growth in ads that occupy new real estate in inescapable ways.

All of it serves to encourage people to buy things they don't need. In Strauss' case, how many MLB viewers need technical work clothing, boots, accessories, and gear such as ergonomic knee pads?

Maybe enough to be worth marketing to them, and that's part of the reality of the world, but most baseball fans would agree there's a line somewhere that risks making the game shift from what it is to a vessel to advertise products, and that's harder to defend when an overt advertiser's top-selling products feature plastic components and materials such as polyester and nylon, which require a ton of resources and energy to produce.