What Happens to the Championship Merchandise of the Teams that Lose?

What happens to the merchandise of teams that lose the World Series? Super Bowl? And other major championships?

As sports fans know, two sets of championship gear are made up every year for each of the big four leagues: the World Series, Stanley Cup, Super Bowl, and NBA Finals. While one set hits the field and the shelves (both physical and virtual) within minutes of the final play, the other set never does.

So what happens to it?

Fortunately, that unused merchandise doesn’t go to waste. It isn’t destroyed or thrown out; instead, it’s collected and donated overseas through a Major League Baseball program that began in 2017.

Following Game 7 of this year’s World Series, “Toronto Blue Jays 2025 World Series Champions” T-shirts, sweatshirts, caps and other items will be donated through Good360, a non-profit that places excess inventory with vetted charities. The organization told the Toronto Star this week that it is currently coordinating with MLB to send the 2025 Blue Jays items to SERV International for distribution “to where it’s needed most,” including communities in the Caribbean, Cambodia, Central America, East Africa, and South America. This exact process has been used for other clubs in recent years that also made it oh-so-close to a championship.

MLB’s relationship with Good360 was announced back in 2017 during the Los Angeles Dodgers – Houston Astros World Series. As many fans know, the league produces official locker-room caps and shirts for both teams in advance so the winners can wear them immediately following the games, and their team shops can sell them to fans. The losing side’s inventory is then pulled back from clubs and retailers, collected, and shipped to a central location for sorting and international distribution. According to a Good360 press release from the time of the original announcement, donated items “cannot be resold,” and are placed to avoid harming local economies. “Although only one team can win the World Series, we can make sure that this merchandise gets a worthwhile second life,” CEO Howard Sherman said in that release.

The program covers standard locker-room pieces such as tees, hoodies, jackets, and caps bearing the non-winning team’s championship marks. Good360 said it has run similar efforts with other leagues, including the NFL’s playoffs and Super Bowl gear, applying the same safeguards around resale and local market impact. For MLB, collections typically begin in the days after the Series ends, with shipments moving by mid-November once club and retail stock is gathered.

*The 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers had their “World Champions” merchandise distributed by Good360*

Prior to 2015, a CNN story says, the “phantom” championship merchandise of losing Super Bowl teams was donated to the World Vision organization, which shipped them to countries such as Zambia, Bosnia, Romania, Armenia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mongolia, Uganda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and Rwanda.

“Where these items go, the people don’t have electricity or running water,” World Vision corporate relations officer Jeff Fields told the New York Times in 2007. “They wouldn’t know who won the Super Bowl. They wouldn’t even know about football.”

Occasionally, items do find their way out onto the market. Personally, I’ve collected a few over the years, including a Toronto Blue Jays 1985 American League Champions pennant and an on-field cap of theirs with the 2015 World Series logo patch on the side.

So, if you want one of those 2025 Toronto Blue Jays World Champions t-shirts, start planning your vacation to East Africa or Cambodia now. And hey, if you do end up getting two while you’re out there, send me an email. I think I could help you find someone who’d want one 😉