The Topps Company is synonymous with baseball cards, but it all started with gum. In 1938, before they began producing baseball cards, brothers Emanuel and Lazarus “Larry” Shorin founded The Topps Chewing Gum, Inc. in Brooklyn, New York. They saw the chewing gum business as promising, and started small by distributing penny sticks locally. Within a few years, they gained distribution deals that expanded their reach across much of the East Coast.
In the late 1940s, the baseball card and bubble gum industries began to cross-pollinate. Bowman Gum and Leaf Gum had both produced early color baseball cards as premiums inserted randomly into packs of gum in the late 1940s. For 1951, Topps sought to take this a step further by including a baseball card with every pack. They inked agreements with Bowman, Leaf, and other smaller competitors to be the sole producer of gum-and-card sets going forward. And so the legendary Topps baseball card era was born.
Those early Topps cards from 1951-1952 featured much more basic graphic designs than the intricately customized sets of later generations. But they helped further popularize the connection between cards, gum, and baseball fandom among kids across the country. By the mid-1950s, Topps’ exclusive run producing both the cards and gum as a single package deal made them in many ways the pioneers of the modern sports memorabilia market.
Keeping production costs down to maintain profitability on such slim profit margin items required constant innovation. A breakthrough came in 1953 when Topps switched from a basic paper stock to the thicker, more durable plastic coating that became their signature calling card. The same year Topps also introduced the “blue back” design template that remained largely unchanged for over a decade. Collectors could more easily keep track of which years and sets they were hunting to complete.
The partnership between baseball cards and gum at Topps also directly coincided with some massive cultural changes in 1950s America. More families owned televisions, exposing a new youth audience to Major League Baseball. The postwar U.S. economy was booming. Combined with Topps’ rapid expansion of distribution through drug stores, supermarkets, and newsstands, this helped cards sell in unprecedented numbers. By some estimates, over 750 million packs were sold during the peak years of the 1950s.
Maintaining their baseball card monopoly grew more difficult over time. In 1960, the Fleer Company sought to stake their claim in the market as well by signing their own deals with MLB teams and players. The first “post-Topps” set featured such stars as Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. That same year, Topps lost some exclusive licensing agreements and had to innovate further. They introduced the wider, squarer “traditional” size cards that remain the standard today, and focused on more advanced printing techniques with color photographs and statistical details on the back.
Through the 1960s and 70s, Topps continued adding new creative touches to their baseball card designs like themed high-number issues, limited editions, and star cards. Gum remained crucial to the business model as well. In earlier decades, they offered a robust lineup of favored flavors like grape, lemon, and cinnamon. But as consumer tastes shifted, Topps supplemented gum with other novelties tucked inside packs like “Magic Rub” erasers, tricks, and stickers. This maintained the random premium formula while broadening the overall product’s appeal.
In the 1980s, a new challenge emerged from emerging giants like Donruss and Fleer that mass produced sets rivaling Topps’ quality. But Topps maintained their exclusive agreements with Major League Baseball which remained essential. The company has also focused on honing connections to iconic players through licensed product lines and special limited print runs. Today, Topps is still a dominant force producing high-end sets, apps, collectibles, and more alongside some of their lower end basic issues. Their consistency and longevity speaks to the powerful branding achieved through over seventy years tying America’s pastime to the classic combination of cards and gum.
The legacy of baseball cards and gum at Topps helped blaze enduring trails in sports and pop culture. Their formula united playful collecting with the stories and statistics that make baseball America’s favorite game. Topps has proven repeatedly the adaptability necessary to evolve with changing times while honoring tradition. And through it all, gum stuck around as a fun throwback reminder of simpler days discovering cards in the local candy shop. That classic formula still holds nostalgic appeal for generations of baseball fans and memorabilia enthusiasts today.
