Mai Fukuo was shopping for a gift for a friend. Hideki Chiba was looking for something for his father-in-law at the same sports store in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo.
They each picked up a blue item. Of course, it’s Los Angeles Dodgers blue. This echoes the color revolution that has been evident across Tokyo in recent months since Shohei Ohtani was traded from the Los Angeles Angels and his base color, red, signed a $700 million 10-year contract with the Dodgers. It reflects.
Most of the Angels’ caps are gone in Tokyo. Dodger lids are fashion items and resemble designer brand products.
Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani talks about his marriage to an “ordinary Japanese woman”
“Otani just transformed our store,” said Takuto Yamashita, a part-time worker at Selection, a shop that boasts Japan’s largest selection of MLB equipment for all 30 teams and 12 Japanese professional teams.
However, there is one team in Japan that is more important than the others. And the reason the Dodgers invested so much money in Ohtani was just one player. Not only his pitching and hitting, but also his celebrity status to promote the Dodgers as a Japanese team.
“The place is completely different. It went from bright red to bright blue,” Yamashita added. “If it weren’t for Ohtani over the past few months, the sales at this store would have been very different.”
Fukuo noticed a traditional white jersey with “Dodgers” written on the front. She lifted it off the rack and picked up the Dodgers and Ohtani costume kilt, admiring its look, size and texture.
“I’m thinking of buying this T-shirt for a colleague, because Ohtani is very famous – in Japan, of course – and all over the world,” she explained. “I’m thinking of this because he likes baseball and he likes Otani.”
In another shopping aisle, Chiba dropped a traditional Dodgers cap into his shopping cart.
“He (Ohtani) is like a hero to us, at least to me as a baseball fan,” Chiba said. “Everyone knows him, even if you’re not a baseball fan. To me, he’s a symbol of Japan. I think people expected him to be a good player, but he It was more than I expected.”
A customer looks at a Dodgers baseball cap and a Los Angeles Dodgers jacket is on display at SELECTION sporting goods store in Shinjuku, Tokyo on Thursday, February 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)
Store manager Hayato Daido estimates that 60% of sales come from Dodgers gear, or Otani-specific T-shirts, jerseys, key chains, etc., and deputy manager Takato Suzuki estimates the percentage is 70%. suggested that it was a possibility. Dido said about 10% of sales are related to local teams such as the Tokyo Giants.
Daido said Ohtani-related sales are “four to five times higher” than they were before the Dodgers announced his contract with Ohtani in December. He said Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who joined the Dodgers on a $325 million, 12-year contract, has not yet received his gear. This contract is reportedly the highest and longest contract among pitchers.
“There is no doubt that there is a demand for it,” Dai said. “We’re just waiting.”
Surprisingly, the items that still sell are Ohtani’s caps and jerseys from his six years with the Angels.
“This is because they are no longer produced and are collector’s items,” says Suzuki, the deputy store manager.
The store is like a museum for Otani, filled with posters, memorabilia, and countless items that say “Sho-time.” There are several Ichiro Suzuki shirts for sale that remind me of a certain first-ballot Hall of Famer.
A shirt with Otani’s dog, Dekopin in Japanese and Decoy in English, is a big item. The next best-selling item may be related to his sudden marriage.
Being an Ohtani fan comes at a price, and it can be expensive. A regular Dodgers cap, like his other MLB caps, sells for about 6,300 yen, or about $42.
However, items exclusively for Otani are much more expensive. The traditional blue Dodgers cap with Interlocking LA on the front, number 17 on the side and a replica of Ohtani’s signature, costs 22,400 yen, or about $150.
If you want the baseball that Ohtani threw in the game on April 27, 2023, brace yourself. The price is a whopping 3.3 million yen, or about $22,000. Ohtani’s used gloves sell for about 2 million yen, or $13,400.
Torben Lin, a Taiwanese man, offered a paradoxical view. While shopping in town, he was interested in buying the jersey of Masanao Yoshida, a Japanese outfielder who wears No. 7 for the Boston Red Sox. He intentionally avoided Ohtani’s gear.
“Ohtani is a good player. He’s really good,” Lin said. “He has two or three skills. But to be honest, I don’t think he’s perfect. You know, we don’t all need to buy his stuff. Souvenirs, shirts. I think we need to support other players.”
That perspective didn’t deter Hina Kishi. She works as a waitress at a Japanese restaurant and she admires a blue Dodgers jersey on the rack, which she said she plans to buy. She looked at the price of 77,000 yen, which was about $510.
“It’s very expensive,” she said, muttering about how she was going to make ends meet before payday. She works wearing a kimono, maki, and traditional Japanese clothing, she said. She said the jersey would provide a “different look.”
“I saw baseball live for the first time last year at the World Baseball Classic at Tokyo Dome,” she said. “I have a lot of respect for Ohtani, he’s the best and he’s a very good person.”
She said she was so fascinated that she flew to Los Angeles shortly afterward to watch Ohtani play for the Angels.
Fans seem willing to pay for gear like Ohtani’s as demand soars and they cut the profits. The blue Dodgers hat with the letter “D” on the bill (often worn at spring training) was nearly sold out in a few days, a store employee said.
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“They talk about Ohtani in the Japanese news every day,” assistant manager Suzuki said. “We can’t imagine what our business would be without him.”
The same goes for MLB and the Dodgers.
