Baseball has been a huge part of my life since…well, for-ev-er. From going to New York Yankees games with my Dad scrounging for foul balls and getting autographs, to my playing days at Randolph High School (Go Rams!), some of my best days involved being on or thinking about a baseball diamond.
Back in the day, when John and I were road tripping around the United States dreaming up what RSVLTS would eventually become, Major League Baseball was a central theme we would always come back to. It's America's past time, hot dogs and cracker jacks, ice cold Old Style beers at Wrigley Field, the 98 Yankees, Benny The Jet hitting the cover off the ball... the possibilities were endless. We didn't necessarily have the idea to start an apparel company flushed out at the time, but we knew what ever the big idea was, baseball would be a cornerstone and if we build it they will come.
Fast forward to today and I couldn’t be prouder and more pumped to announce the latest partnership we’ve inked. Yep, RSVLTS is now an officially licensed partner of the Major League Baseball Player’s Association (MLBPA).
Baseball in 2018 is a gold mine of talented, marketable players who are right in our wheelhouse. Guys like Aaron Judge and Didi Gregorious in our backyard. Young studs like Javier Báez and Mookie Betts taking the league by storm. And what do all of these guys have in common? You’ll be seeing them on RSVLTS x MLB apparel in the very near future!
I wouldn’t necessarily consider RSVLTS a “baseball company.” You can see by our wide variety of designs and partnerships that we aren’t, but speaking for myself and the other guys behind the brand, we are baseball people.
Before RSVLTS A morphed into what it is today, John and I planned some epic baseball road trips (with the backing of some incredible partners like Microsoft, Unilever, Nokia and others). We visited every MLB ballpark in a month…which was as exhausting as it was fun. We also dreamt up the ultimate Baseball Bucket List and completed it over the course of one summer. These adventures, seeing the ins-and-outs of all the ballparks, meeting fans and seeing the outrageous unlicensed t-shirts outside each ballpark paved the way to where we are today.
In recent years, in my humble opinion, it feels like fan merchandise has become stale and lacks a level of creativity (and quality) that RSVLTS has become known for and we believe fans deserve. All that is about to change with MLBPA x RSVLTS breathing some life back into the space.
Our goal is to immortalize the biggest and brightest stars in the MLB through officially licensed RSVLTS t-shirts, button-downs, swim and more. We’re going to commemorate some of baseball’s unique and memorable moments (like that time Anthony Rizzo came out of the bullpen to close outta game and locked in a 0.00 ERA) in a way we do best!
We have big plans for this partnership and we just dropped our first round of limited edition designs right in time for the heat of the 2018 MLB Playoffs. Check out RSVLTS.com to see the full collection and stay tuned!