Logo Patches on Jerseys
Logo patches are now seen on jerseys in sports leagues all around the world, generating millions in revenue for sports teams. What are the laws and ethics behind these logo patches on jerseys?
Our favorite athletes have unique identifications that can make us recognize them from anywhere as we watch them on the TV. They wear luxury branded clothes outside of the field or court they play on, but when we watch them playing their respective sport, they wear a unique uniform. These uniforms have changed over time
Growing up watching sports, I saw jerseys with the player's name and number, the team name and logo, the manufacturer's name and logo (Nike, adidas, etc.), and often the league's logo (NBA, NFL, etc.). More recently, the empty space on the jerseys has decreased as they started filling up with ads and other brands on the jerseys. These ruined the simplicity the jerseys once possessed, and with new manufacturers making the jerseys, the colorways and designs of the jerseys also changed.
We spoke to professionals in the sports industry to help us understand the concepts that are associated with sports franchise jerseys that include ads and the logos from other brands. We spoke to Greg Berkowitz, the director of trademarks and licensing for University of Maryland, College Park (UMD). Berkowitz works strategically with the marketing, creative, and digital teams at UMD to grow the college’s retail sales and licensing revenue.
We also spoke to Shameeka Quallo, the General Counsel of the Washington Spirit. As the General Counsel, Quallo works on a wide range of legal issues, including trademark issues associated with the Washington Spirit.
Shameeka Quallo
General Counsel, Washington Spirit
Greg Berkowitz
Trademark & Licensing Director, University of Maryland, College Park
Photo courtesy of the Washington Spirit
University of Maryland:
UMD team uniforms feature the Under Armour logo, since Under Armour has an agreement with UMD to supply those uniforms. Berkowitz explained to us his experience working with Under Armour on these issues.
Washington Spirit:
Shameeka Quallo, General Counsel of the Washington Spirit, previously worked for the Chicago Cubs as an attorney. Ms. Quallo has a lot of experience in trademark and licensing, including as to jerseys.
She explained to us a number of issues relating to jersey sponsorships, including the increasing use of sponsor logos on sports jerseys, the sponsors for the Washington Spirit and the National Women’s Soccer League, considering the values of proposed sponsors, and prohibitions on certain categories of sponsors.
History of Jersey Patches:
The history of jersey ad patches is quite recent in the NBA but has been around since the 1970s in the soccer world. In contrast, the NFL has yet to introduce these jersey patches, but because of the amount of revenue they create being America’s biggest sport, insiders believe that the introduction of logo pateches on NFL jerseys is inevitable.
The NBA introduced their jersey patches in the 2017-2018 season where they added the Nike Swoosh and a team sponsor to the left and right corner on the front of the jersey and then pushed the NBA logo on the back collar of the jersey (Courtney, 2024). This came after Nike won the rights to uniform and apparel at the end of the 2016 NBA season, creating a league wide change in the quality of the jersey, color/design of the jersey and most importantly introduced a 3-year deal to the attached ad jersey patch.
These ad patches were at a size of 2.5 x 2.5 inch and placed on the left shoulder of the jersey. These were expensive 2.5 inches as the patches for all 30 NBA teams in just the 2017 season ranged from 5-10 million dollars annually (Glover, 2017). These deals placed a foundation for the NBA to raise their price for their jersey’s patches now where the highest jersey sponsor deal is for the New York Knicks for a whopping $30 million (Nagle, 2023).
Soccer is the biggest sport in the world because it is played worldwide and has some of the biggest names associated with sports. With big names come big soccer clubs, which results in the biggest brands in the world associating themselves on the jerseys. The first soccer club to ever get an advertisement on their jersey was in 1973, a German soccer club named, Eintracht Braunschweig, who signed a deal with local alcohol company Jägermeister to have its logo on the front of their shirts (Kelly, 2020). Today, the richest soccer club, Real Madrid receives seventy million pounds annually from their jersey sponsor Emirates (Chhajta, 2024).
Conflicts with Athlete Sponsors:
There are instances where athletes have put tape over a jersey sponsor or otherwise covered the logo because they were personally sponsored by a rival brand. In 2022, during a summer Drew League game, the jersey sponsor and league wide sponsor for the Drew League was adidas. Two famous Nike sponsored athletes, Lebron James and DeMar DeRozan, were playing in the game but had the adidas logo taped to show their loyalty to Nike (Cash, 2022). This shows the pros and cons of having a jersey sponsor as the revenue is there but since athletes have so many lucrative deals with different companies, there will be times when athletes will choose their sponsor over their team/league sponsor.
What Makes a Sports Team Choose a sponsor?
Looking at NBA and Soccer teams with their sponsors, it’s interesting to think about whether they chose this sponsor because the sponsor bid the most amount of money or whether the franchise genuinely likes the brand. Shameeka Quallo told us that the things Washington Spirit looks for in their jersey sponsor is “the mission vision and values of that company and does it mesh with who we are, does it also mesh with their diversity initiatives, or their initiatives to support or invest in women sports?”
Many famous soccer clubs have made their local communities a sponsor to build their reputation and help give back to their local community. Some of the famous local brands that grew with their local soccer club is the technology company Philips that sponsored PSC Eindhoven in 1913. A century later, Philips is still the sponsor of PSC Eindhoven. Another club that started its sponsorship with a local sponsor, making the club and the sponsor grow into giants in their respective fields is the soccer club VFL Wolfsburg with Volkswagen.
As teams look for local sponsors to promote both parties, sponsors also look for clubs in a key market that help the sponsor to reach and connect with larger audiences. Brands from other countries have sponsored international clubs to promote their company and increase international exposure and revenue. Famous car company Jeep sponsored Italian soccer club Juventus in 2012 which increased Jeep car sales by more than 590% in the seven initial years of sponsorship in Europe alone (Mills, 2023).
Nostalgia Feeling of Jerseys:
Fans seem somewhat neutral about jersey logo patches, as they do not have the nostalgic feeling like they did a few years ago. However, the patches also help teams and clubs generate more revenue, allowing our favorite teams and clubs to sign our favorite players to maximum contracts. The patches can be distracting as they are starting to fill up more of the jersey, but sports fans should be focused on more about the players’ performance than for the actual jersey. Also, with the increased viewership of sports, there likely will be more patches and sponsors on jerseys. This will inevitably create less space on the jersey but in the end the revenue these sponsors are generating with simply having logos present on clothing is way more important to franchises than letting that opportunity go because of nostalgia.
References:
James Kelly 2020: How Jägermeister Changed the World of Corporate Shirt Sponsorships
Rajat Chhajta 2024: Top 11 biggest football shirt sponsorship deals in 2024
https://khelnow.com/football/2023-08-world-football-biggest-shirt-sponsorship-deals
Ben Nagle 2023: NY Knicks eye record $30 million a year jersey sponsorship
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nba/article-11792607/New-York-Knicks-eye-record-30m -year-jersey-sponsorship-rival-league-high-Nets-deal.html
Basketball News 2024: NBA Teams’ Revenue Soaring to $293.83 million Via Jersey Patch Partnerships
Meredith Cash 2022:Nike Sponsored DeMar DeRozan & Lebron Story taped over the Adidas logo on their Drew League Jersey:
https://news.yahoo.com/news/nike-sponsored-lebron-james-demar-161924287.html
Alyssa Meyers 2023: Some of the newest NBA jersey sponsors are brands you might not expect
https://www.marketingbrew.com/stories/2023/10/27/some-of-the-newest-nba-jersey-sponsors-are-brands-you-might-not-expect
Dominic Mills 2023: Shirt Sponsorships-How Brands find Different Routes to Success