No-Names Making a Name through Jersey Patch Deals

The evolution of the marketplace for jersey patch partnerships in U.S. pro sports has been fascinating to watch ever since the NBA got the ball rolling in 2017.

As I have noted in previous posts, there has been significant turnover in patch sponsorships in the NBA over the past seven years—only five teams have retained their initial jersey partner—but that fact does not reflect displeasure with the value received as much as it does the unique nature of many of the brands that have been attracted to patch deals not only in the NBA but with the opportunities offered by NHL and MLB teams.

Many sports marketing professionals were skeptical of the initial high-seven-to-low-eight-figure valuations placed on jersey patch opportunities by those selling them. As one senior sponsorship decision-maker at a major pro sports sponsor told me this week, “We knew these were numbers that franchise ownership wanted to get and that their partnership salespeople could only justify with inflated media-equivalency valuations that no one who knows anything takes seriously.”

Early on, the prevailing wisdom among sellers and buyers was that big-dollar patch deals only made sense if the jersey inventory was just one asset bundled into a larger partnership that included a host of physical, IP, hospitality and other promotional rights and benefits.

But what has emerged in what is now a mature patch market is a new type of buyer for whom NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS and NWSL patches themselves are the primary focus of the deal and for whom a multi-million-dollar rights fee based on exposure and visibility makes sense. In short, and only half-kiddingly, they are companies and brands you never heard of.

In the last year alone, companies such as LiveView Technologies, Spokenote, Sezzle, GetYourGuide, NewAge Products and Brightside Windows have signed patch deals with NBA teams to increase their brand awareness.

The trend is not limited to the NBA. German workwear company Strauss, which entered the U.S. market just a year ago, is featured on all player helmets during this year’s MLB playoffs—the start of a four-year deal with the league. NHL jersey patch sponsors include such non-household names as Western National Property Management, Rapid 7, Nucor, Priority Waste and Iron Bow.

All of those are examples of companies that can effectively use sponsorship and the attention and eyeballs it attracts to establish themselves as big players in key and emerging markets. They need the visibility that patch deals provide much more than established companies and brands.

They also don’t necessarily need the commitment to be long-term. Their objectives can be achieved in a year or two, explaining in part why we have seen such a high churn rate among jersey patch sponsors.

That doesn’t make it easy on partnership sales teams that have to re-enter the marketplace and ramp up prospecting and outreach efforts every few years, but that should be counterbalanced by the expanded prospect pool that lies outside of well-established brands.