MLB (Major League Baseball), as the world's highest professional baseball league, has a licensing partnership with the popular "MLB" fashion brand in the Korean market, but there are significant differences in business scope and brand positioning between the two.

1. Background of brand authorization: the regional division of trademark use rights

Since 1997, MLB has implemented a globalization strategy to expand the derivatives market through trademark licensing. South Korea's F&F Group was officially authorized by MLB in 2005 to exclusively operate MLB's brand apparel, shoes, hats and accessories in South Korea, China, Southeast Asia and other regions. This licensing model is similar to Disney's partnership with local agents, where the league retains the core business of tournament operations and team management, and delegates the rights to develop consumer products to specialist companies. It is worth noting that MLB merchandise licensing in the United States is held by different companies such as New Era and Nike, reflecting the MLB league's strategy of dividing commercial licensing by region.

2. Differences in operating models: the symbiosis of sports IP and trendy brands

Major League Baseball's core value is athletic competition, and its revenue comes from broadcasts (40%), tickets (30%) and sponsorships (20%). The Korean MLB brand is essentially a fashion company, and it obtains the right to use the MLB team logo (such as Yankees NY and Dodgers LA) by paying royalties, transforming sports elements into trend symbols. F&F Group has achieved annual sales of more than $1 billion in Asia through design improvements (such as adjusting the hat shape to fit the Asian head shape), celebrity marketing (signing with Hallyu idols such as EXO) and pop-up store model, which is in stark contrast to the North American market's predominantly fan merchandise.

Third, the dislocation development of market positioning

The MLB league achieves a win-win situation of cultural export and revenue growth through licensing: it not only expands the influence of baseball culture (70% of Korean MLB consumers are non-baseball fans), but also obtains stable copyright income (about 15% of the league's total licensing revenue). South Korean MLB brands, on the other hand, accurately capture the street fashion needs of young people, and their product pricing (about 300 yuan) has formed a differentiated competition with trendy brands such as Supreme. This cooperation model has also caused controversy, such as the investigation and punishment of counterfeit MLB trademark cases by the Shanghai market regulation department in 2021, highlighting the complexity of licensing border management.

A successful paradigm for the commercialization of MLB sports IP

The cooperation between MLB League and Korean brands demonstrates the business wisdom of top sports IPs to achieve cultural breakthroughs through regional licensing. This model not only maintains the professionalism of sports leagues, but also activates the fashion consumer market through localized operations, providing a reference model for the globalization of leagues such as the Premier League and the NBA. With the MLB brand planning to add 120 new stores in China in 2024, this crossover symbiosis between sports and fashion will continue to deepen.