The All-Star Game returns to Philadelphia in coming days with more than baseball.
It arrives with two sprawling shopping destinations, hundreds of exclusive products, and a merchandising operation at both the Convention Center and Citizens Bank Park. Fanatics, the sports-commerce giant, will anchor All-Star Village with a flagship store, while Aramark has transformed the two-level Phillies New Era Team Store at the ballpark into a showcase of All-Star-exclusive merchandise.
Like the FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl, Formula One races, and the recent PGA Classic at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Major League Baseball treats its marquee events as multiday fan festivals. The result: The Midsummer Classic has become as much a retail event as a baseball event.
“Commercially, it ranks in our top three events,” said Jamie Leece, a senior vice president with MLB. “From a business perspective, I’d say it’s our most important because we’re bringing every team together in one place.”
Unlike the postseason, where only a handful of teams remain, the All-Star Game draws fans from all 30 teams. MLB expects more than 80,000 people to visit All-Star Village over the four days.
“We have passionate fans who travel to multiple All-Star Games, and we also have people attending for the first time,” Leece said. “We want to make sure they have an incredible experience and can find merchandise that reflects their fandom.”
A temporary retail city
The biggest attraction inside All-Star Village may also be its biggest business.
Fanatics, led by Philadelphia-area entrepreneur Michael Rubin, will operate a 16,000-square-foot flagship store at the Convention Center — its largest All-Star retail footprint since Los Angeles hosted the game in 2022. The company says the store, open to ticket holders, will carry more than 400 product styles from Nike, New Era, Mitchell & Ness, Homage, WinCraft, ’47 Brand, and Fanatics.
The assignment is fitting for a company with deep local roots. Fanatics traces its modern growth to Rubin’s King of Prussia-based GSI Commerce, which acquired the business in 2011. After eBay purchased GSI, Rubin bought Fanatics back and transformed it into one of the world’s largest sports-commerce companies.
Today, analysts say the privately held company expects about $13 billion in revenue this year and employs more than 22,000 people worldwide. In addition to operating licensed merchandise for the major professional leagues, it owns Topps, the baseball-card maker, and has expanded into collectibles, sports betting, live events, and media.
Under a long-term partnership with MLB and Nike, Fanatics manufactures and distributes much of Major League Baseball’s licensed fan apparel, making the All-Star Village store the public face of a merchandising operation that extends far beyond All-Star Week in Philadelphia. Most of the merchandise in the store was conceived, approved, manufactured, and shipped months before fans ever walked through the Convention Center doors.
This year’s assortment leans heavily into Philadelphia.
The company said host-city merchandise, particularly jerseys and hats, has become an increasingly important part of every All-Star collection. Philadelphia-themed offerings include Homage’s Grateful Dead-inspired Patriot T-shirt and “Always Sunny in Philly” shirt, ’47 Brand’s “Hit That Jawn” and cheesesteak-themed designs, and Sportiqe’s Elton John-inspired “Philadelphia Freedom” T-shirt.
Home-field advantage
If Fanatics anchors the Convention Center, Aramark — the Phillies’ concessionaire — is treating Citizens Bank Park as a shopping destination in its own right. Its two-story shop is open daily to the public except for Sunday.
After the July 2 home game against the Pirates, Aramark workers cleared the store of all regular Phillies merchandise and began loading in All-Star items. The store was expanded in the offseason to about 7,500 square feet.
Francis Winkey, Aramark’s senior merchandise manager at the ballpark, said the store has about 400 All-Star items, about 75% of them exclusive. Winkey, a pin collector himself, commissioned 84 pins, including one representing each major-league team.
Behind the displays is a manufacturing process that begins more than a year before the first pitch. MLB develops the event’s logos and branding, then works with dozens of licensed manufacturers specializing in a wide range of products — caps, jerseys, drinkware, collectibles, and other souvenirs. Companies submit designs for league approval before production begins, often months in advance, at factories overseas.
The biggest complication is that no one knows who will make the All-Star teams until shortly before the game. Most merchandise, therefore, celebrates the event or the host city rather than individual players. When player-specific products are planned, manufacturers often build in flexibility so they can be finished after the rosters are announced.
Take the commemorative baseballs that Winkey dreamed up. Last fall, he ordered Rawlings baseballs featuring bold All-Star graphics that intentionally had one blank panel.
Once the rosters were announced, Winkey had a domestic factory finish the baseballs. “When I knew Shohei Ohtani made the team, I could put Ohtani’s name on it,” Winkey said. “It’s a combination of long-term planning and a short-term reaction.”
The store carries six player editions, including Ohtani and Phillies sluggers Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber, for $17 a throw.
Bigger every year
MLB executives say the retail operation has grown alongside the event itself.
“Whenever we’ve expanded the retail space, we’ve seen the business grow,” said Leece, of MLB. “It’s always a balancing act because All-Star Village is a celebration of baseball, not just a shopping destination. We want activations, interactive experiences, and things for fans to do beyond buying merchandise.”
The assortment has expanded, too. “We have more licensees creating more unique items,” Leece said. “International fandom has grown significantly, so we now have fans traveling from all over the world. As the audience has expanded, so has the variety of merchandise. One category that’s really emerged over the last several years is oversized chains and necklaces. They’re a good example of a product category that really came out of nowhere.”
Philadelphia’s role as host city during the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration also shaped the collection. “It always starts with the identity of the host city,” Leece said. “Philadelphia’s history aligns naturally with the Phillies’ identity.”
Across the ballpark, All-Star Village, and MLB’s online stores, about 600 products will be available during the week.
One operational change won’t be visible on the sales floor.
“We’ll have the largest on-site retail staff we’ve ever had, both at All-Star Village and the ballpark,” Leece said. “We want fans to spend less time waiting in line and more time enjoying everything else the event has to offer.”
In addition to those stores, Fanatics brand Mitchell & Ness is selling All-Star merchandise at its new store at 1513 Walnut St.
Retail analysts say the All-Star Game occupies a unique niche in the licensed sports business.
“The All-Star Game is really about on-site souvenirs,” said Matt Powell, founder of the sports retail consultancy Spurwink River. “People are there and want something to commemorate the experience because it’s essentially a one-off event.”
Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said demand tends to split between wearable keepsakes and collectibles.
“One is simple products like T-shirts or caps linked to the Phillies or the All-Star Game,” Saunders said. “The other is collectible items that can be more expensive. The real fans or those who love collecting are enthusiastic about these.”
The All-Star retail boom reflects the growth of licensed sports merchandise into a multibillion-dollar global business. One industry estimate valued the market at $38 billion in 2025, with North America accounting for more than half of sales. Apparel remains the largest category, helping explain why jerseys, caps, and other wearable souvenirs dominate event retail.
Unlike merchandise driven by blockbuster trades or new uniforms, Powell said, All-Star merchandise derives much of its value from the event itself.
Fans aren’t simply buying apparel. They’re buying proof they were there.
Yet for all the focus on merchandise, Leece said the larger goal is creating memories.
“I hope they slow down,” he said. “I hope they walk in, look around, and appreciate that they’re somewhere special. This is baseball’s World’s Fair. It only happens once a year, and for Philadelphia it only comes around every couple of decades.”
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