For the first time in Topps history, the iconic company has handed over the reins to someone outside the company, and in this new concept, they chose Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper to create his own baseball card set with his vision. Harper can now add “baseball card designer” to his resumé, and this adds to Harper’s foray into designing baseball caps, cleats, and bats as well as Rawlings baseball gloves.
The end result in this collaboration with Topps is an absolutely unique baseball card set featuring top players in the league, his all-time favorites — and yes — even guys with the best hair featuring Bryce’s original baseball mentor and hair aficionado Jayson Werth!
The set is known as the Topps X Bryce Harper “220”. This is the first-of-its-kind set where Topps gave the creative freedom to Harper who hand-picked the design, chose the players, theme, and added his own words to the card backs. His meticulous approach resulted in a set that fans are sure to love, and the premium $50 set has already sold-out within a few hours of it’s online debut. The good news is the $24.99 set is still available online at Topps on this link.
“I have never done anything like this to really design a product, put something forward like this,” Harper said. “I’ve done cleats and bats, but to be able to do a baseball card [set] is special.”
As many know, the “220” is a title picked by Harper to signify his personal mantra of “Second to None.” Every detail of the set was picked by Harper to reflect who he is and his love for the game and many personal quotes on the backs of the cards.
“Just don’t hit it to third..you’re out,” Harper wrote on the back of the Nolan Arenado card.
The Topps X Bryce Harper “220” features the following components:
• Fourteen of MLB’s top players that would encompass his own team
• Best Hair: Harper’s top five MLB players with great hair
• Harper’s Heroes: highlights his all-time favorite moments in MLB history
• Look Good, Feel Good: Showcases the essence of Harper on and off the field.
Harper is the first person to be featured for the personalized sets from Topps. Look for more sets in the future from top athletes, celebrities and notable figures. For more details, go to Topps.com.
The set includes these stars in the base set:
– Yadier Molina C
– Freddie Freeman 1B
– Javier Baez 2B
– Manny Machado SS
– Nolan Arenado 3B
– Marcell Ozuna OF
– Mike Trout OF
– J.D. Martinez OF
– Mookie Betts OF
– Max Scherzer P
– Jacob deGrom P
– Justin Verlander P
– Sean Doolittle P
– Aroldis Chapman P
Best Hair
– Andrew Benintendi
– Jacob deGrom
– Dereck Rodriguez
– Dansby Swanson
– Jayson Werth
Harper’s Heroes
– Ken Griffey Jr.
– Chipper Jones
– Derek Jeter
– Josh Gibson
– Ron Harper (Bryce’s dad)
Even the box itself is very “Bryce Harper” in the design which features Bryce from his triumphant win in the Home Run Derby at Nationals Park this year.
Bryce also chose teammates Sean Doolittle and Max Scherzer for the “stars” set.
Baseball fans! @Bharper3407 put together an entire set of special edition cards just for @Topps and it came out really cool. (Full disclosure: I might be biased because I got to be a part of the set.) Check it out here: https://t.co/LdpBMzLaOI #ad pic.twitter.com/F1AmSKRjYh
— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) September 6, 2018
“Bryce Harper was great to work with on this baseball product where he hand-picked everything,” Susan Lulgjuraj, Topps Marketing Communications Manager said. “He came with ideas of what he wanted, he meticulously chose the players for the set, and took full ownership all the way down the name, “220”.
Topps wanted to see how far it could push boundaries for the on-demand products. In this case, we wanted an athlete involved who is featured in Topps products and let them have the say. The Topps X Harper set showcased his personality and style. We couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out.”
Here is some behind-the-scenes video of the set being put together:
