The San Diego Padres will wear a Motorola logo on their sleeves beginning with the 2023 Major League Baseball regular season. While corporate partnerships are nothing new in baseball, it’s the first time we’ve seen an MLB team with a sponsored patch. The league said earlier this month that MLB teams could use the logos of corporate sponsors on their uniforms, similar to what both the NBA and NHL are doing.
Beginning in 2023, the Motorola ‘batwing’ logo will appear on the right sleeve on versions of the Padres jerseys. Motorola will also equip the Padres’ Hall of Fame with interactive technology displays and product integration throughout the exhibit.
“We are excited to partner with a quintessential and innovative brand like Motorola to bring cutting edge technology, design and performance to Petco Park,” Padres CEO Erik Greupner said in a press release. “The iconic Motorola logo on our jersey is a perfect match for our Padres brand and we look forward to working together to bring a great experience to our fans.”
The NBA’s jersey patch program has ended in some particularly lucrative deals – the combined value for the 2021-22 season was expected $225 million† The brands involved are generally more unconventional than your average liquor and sneaker company sponsors. A number of tech companies have sponsored jersey patches, including discount app Ibotta, Squarespace, Vistaprint and online commerce company WeBull† The Philadelphia 76ers recently became a $10 million a year jersey patch partnership with Hong Kong-based Crypto.com arena.
Motorola is also the jersey patch sponsor of three separate NBA teams; the Milwaukee Bucks, the Indiana Pacers, and the Brooklyn Nets. Perhaps the biggest score for Motorola is that it is now the official smartphone sponsor for all of these teams. These deals could raise the Android phone maker’s profile and generate more buzz around this year’s new Edge+ and Moto G Stylus.
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