READY TO WEAR

While some athletes flaunt designer threads, many MLB players sport something simpler: CUSTOM T-SHIRTS dorned with playful graphics and witty catchphrases

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Lakers forward LeBron James has the Met Gala. Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs has Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks. Baseball players have the T-shirt Industrial Complex.

The ecosystem is virtually self-sustaining at this point: The companies-the two most popular are Breaking T and Rotowear-mail the shirts to the players, at no cost to them; the players wear the tees on TV, serving as free marketing; fans see them and buy them. Baseball offers 162 batting practice sessions a year, plus several times that many on-camera postgame interviews, which is a lot of chances for T-shirt exposure.

Indeed, Rotowear founder Kenny Tevelowitz says he has never run a paid ad. ("Somebody that is more business savvy would look at that and be like, 'You're a moron,' but it's how I've been doing it," he says with a laugh.) Breaking T and Rotowear-founded in 2014 and '17, respectively-both have galleries of major leaguers in their T-shirts on their home pages.

The team-wide T-shirt idea itself dates back at least a decade. In 2013, the Blue Jays wore RAISE THE BAR shirts during batting practice to encourage fans to vote reliever Steve Delabar into the All-Star Game. (The campaign worked.) In '14, Royals pitcher Jeremy Guthrie sported a THESE O'S AIN'T ROYAL T-shirt at his postgame press conference after Kansas City beat Baltimore in Game 3 of the ALCS. (He later apologized, saying a fan had given him the shirt and he was not familiar with the reference to Chris Brown's hit "Loyal," which includes the lyric, "These hoes ain't loyal.") In '16, the Cubs donned shirts emblazoned with manager Joe Maddon's motivational phrase, TRY NOT TO SUCK.