Mike Trout is broadening his off-field portfolio with a new venture built around one of his longtime hobbies. After 16 seasons with the Angels, the Los Angeles star has helped launch Gen One Collect, a sports collectibles company centered on trading cards.
The company is being introduced with live card breaks as its first major focus. From there, the plan is to grow into original content and experiences that bring athletes and collectors together. Trout is entering a space he has followed closely for years, but this time he’s doing more than collecting.
He’s joined in the effort by Eric Mandelkern, another card collector who will work as co-founder and CEO. Per Sports Illustrated Collectibles, conversations about getting into the collectibles business started in 2024, so this was not a spur-of-the-moment idea.
Trout’s connection to the hobby goes back to childhood, when he and his parents would visit flea markets and he collected everything from Pokémon cards to baseball cards. He later returned to the hobby during the COVID-19 pandemic and became especially interested in Bowman prospects.
Now, he wants to make that same kind of experience available to others. Trout told Sports Illustrated that he hopes to take part in live breaks and chat directly with fans online.
The company is also aiming to bring younger fans into collecting. One of its launch initiatives is “The First Rip,” an event planned with Trout’s youth baseball camp, where children will get the chance to open packs of Topps baseball cards.
Rather than just attaching his name to a business, Trout is stepping into a role shaped by something he has genuinely enjoyed for years. Gen One Collect now gets a run at turning that passion into a real operation, with Trout’s profile giving it instant attention and its focus giving it a broader reach.
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