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February 08, 2023

MLB Jerseys to Feature Corporate Sponsor Logos for First Time

The Los Angeles Angels just announced a sponsorship deal – part of baseball’s new phenomenon that’s another indicator of the growing pervasiveness of branding on tangible merchandise.

By  Christopher Ruvo

Starting in the 2023 season, Major League Baseball jerseys will be a new branding medium for companies and organizations that can afford to have their logos featured on teams’ uniforms.

For the first time ever, MLB is allowing its 30 teams to place the logos of a paying sponsor/advertiser on the sleeve of players’ jerseys in the form of a patch.

Angels jersey

The Los Angeles Angels’ 2023 jerseys will feature a sleeve patch with the logo of corporate sponsor Foundation Building Materials (FBM).

With pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training next week to usher in the start of the new season, the on-uniform advertising phenomenon was in the spotlight as the Los Angeles Angels announced Feb. 4 that they’ve entered into a three-year agreement with Foundation Building Materials (FBM) as their official jersey patch partner.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t released, but reports indicate FBM is now the Angels’ largest corporate sponsor.

The partnership marked the fourth to date between an MLB team and a corporation willing to pay to have its logo on the sleeve of the jerseys that players will wear day in and day out through spring training, the 162-game regular season and, if they’re the lucky, the autumn playoffs.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have partnered with electronics company Avnet, while the Boston Red Sox have struck a sponsorship deal with insurance provider Mass Mutual. The San Diego Padres have connected with tech device maker Motorola. The Cincinnati Reds are said to be close to a deal with chain grocer/retailer Kroger, as are the Houston Astros with energy-industry firm Oxy Energy.

As for the Angels, their partnership will have them wearing a patch of FBM’s rectangular logo on their jersey sleeves. The building materials provider’s logo features a cypress tree and the FBM initials, in the same blue and red colors of the Angels. Founded in 2011, FBM is headquartered near the Anaheim-based Angels in Orange, CA, and has 280 locations throughout the United States and Canada.

“They’re a local company with a national footprint that has operations in every MLB market, which was appealing,” Angels Executive Vice President Dana Wells said following the announcement of the deal. “And we liked the values, especially with the family and being rooted in the community. We feel like it can evolve into a bigger partnership. We felt they were the absolute No. 1 fit for us.”

Ruben Mendoza, founder, president and CEO of FBM, is excited about the exposure his company will gain through the partnership. Due to new scheduling this year, each MLB team will play every other team in at least one series this season, meaning FBM gets highlighted in every team’s market.

“The Angels play every other team in MLB, and that’s exciting for us because we can leverage that with our customers,” Mendoza told MLB.com. “We have over 35,000 customers. We’re kind of a pro building material company, but we have a lot of customers who are Major League Baseball fans. So, wherever the Angels play, we’re there, and that’s good for us.”

The Angels spent about a year looking for a sponsor and enlisted the help of Excel Sports Management. The Angels and Excel whittled a candidate pool of about 100 possible sponsors to 20 and analyzed those further before partnering with FBM.

Despite the interest in the Angels sponsorship, not every team has been so lucky thus far. In fact, Ad Age reported that only 10 to 15 MLB  teams may actually start the regular season this spring with jersey sponsors – something driven by recession-fear caution and a preponderance of other sport branding sponsorship options. Still, the corporate branding on jerseys appears to be part of the foreseeable future of America’s pastime. Helmet logos, in the form of decals, are also allowed.

“I think that jersey patches – advertisements on jerseys – are a reality of life in professional sports,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America last year. “That’s a revenue source that is significant enough that it is really impossible for the sport to ignore over the long haul. I think that’s the truth.”

MLB prohibits ads from would-be sponsors that sell alcohol, tobacco, weapons and cannabis. Sports betting entities, casinos, politics and content providers are also banned.

On-uniform corporate branding is nothing new in the world of international soccer, with players donning uniforms decorated with sponsors’ logos. In professional athletics in the United States, however, it’s a more recent occurence (motorsports being an exception).

Major League Soccer aligned with the larger soccer world and allowed teams to feature sponsor logos. The National Basketball Association (NBA) eventually got in the game too, allowing ads on uniforms starting in the 2017-18 season. The National Hockey League (NHL) green-lighted advertisement decals for player helmets beginning in the 2021-2022 season, and jersey patches starting this year. The National Football League (NFL) does not allow teams to feature sponsors’ branding on jerseys and the like.