In April last year, the NBA announced that it would begin the 2017-18 season with NBA jersey advertising. Since then, six teams — the 76ers, Celtics, Kings, Nets, Jazz and Cavaliers — have agreed to advertise jerseys.

The NBA is currently in the playoffs, and the Warriors are still the league's favorites to win the championship. And off the court, the asking price of their jersey advertising has also reached a staggering $15 million to 20 million per year, which is even the sponsorship income of the 76ers for three years of advertising.

How much business is there for NBA jersey advertising?

BA's jerseys have historically come in many versions and come in varying prices.

From the NBA jersey version, look at the evolution of advertising sponsorship

The NBA's current silhouette logo was designed in 1969, but it wasn't until 1986 that the logo officially appeared on the jersey, almost 20 years after the logo was designed, and the NBA has been playing for 40 years.

NBA jerseys can be broadly divided into two versions: the player version and the fan version.

The player's jersey is abbreviated as G and is divided into GI - the jersey that the player has not worn for various reasons, and GU - the jersey worn by the player when he plays, the player's version of the jersey is tailor-made by the sponsor for each player, there is no size, no mass production, and no public sale.

The fan version of the jersey can be divided into REP, which refers to the jersey that uses the offset printing process to print the number and team information, and the S originally refers to the fan version of the jersey that uses a single-layer electric embroidery process to print the number and team information, and since the 2015-2016 season, adidas has used the heat paste process to print the number in the S jersey.

The vast majority of NBA jerseys currently circulating in the market refer to these two types of jerseys.

AU jersey refers to a jersey that is processed with multi-layer embroidery process, from the fabric, version to the process are made with reference to the player's version of the jersey, so it is often referred to as the player's version, but this kind of jersey is not tailored to each player, and the athlete does not actually wear it. Despite this, the AU version of the jersey is still relatively rare in the market, except for a few styles and stores, the AU jersey is rarely sold in mainland China, and it is also expensive.

The REP and S versions of the jerseys are printed with the NBA logo and the logo of the jersey sponsor, while the G and AU versions of the jersey only have the NBA's own logo and no sponsor's logo.

Starting next season, not only will the shirt sponsor NIKE's logo "hook" appear on the G version of the jersey, but teams will also be able to control the advertising space on their team's left chest (about 6.35 cm square).

NBA fans have always rejected commercialization, and the NBA has worked hard to create an environment that is as non-commercial as possible. However, under the general trend of the market, the NBA cannot achieve a complete pure land, although the player's clothes are not printed with the Adi logo, but the player on the bench on the coat of the big Adi logo is also particularly eye-catching.

For the next three seasons, the NBA will also experiment with advertising on the left chest of the jersey to various teams, although it is an experiment, but it is clear that from the moment NIKE agreed to print its logo on the jersey, the NBA has entered a new era of advertising.

Since the 50s of the last century, the idea of printing advertisements on football jerseys has been proposed in Europe, and at that time, people also shouted slogans to defend the Pure Land. With the continuous attempts, people gradually found that the upper body of the advertisement is not so terrible, and while it brings additional benefits to the team, it does not bring much damage to the team's own brand value and fan recognition. Today, the ads on the jerseys are getting bigger and bigger, and people are accepting it.

Such NBA uniforms may be seen in the future

Jersey + advertisement, can the NBA's abacus start?

It is known that in 2006, Adidas spent $400 million to become the sole sponsor of the NBA's jersey for 11 years. However, in the new round of jersey sponsorship negotiations, Adidas withdrew from the competition precisely because Adi felt that the jersey cooperation with the NBA did not achieve their expected benefits. So this time by printing ads on jerseys, can the NBA achieve a win-win situation with sponsors?

NBA commissioner Shaw has stressed more than once that advertising on jerseys will help boost economic returns, which will become a trend in the industry.

Let's take a look at how much the team is getting:

The original signing of the 76ers and the Kings were both on a three-year, $15 million deal, the Celtics signed GE General Motors for 7 million, the Nets signed the software company Infor for an annual advertising fee of 8 million, and the Utah Jazz had a slightly lower advertising fee than other teams, about 4 million per year.

According to ESPN's Darren Rovell, the Golden State Warriors' psychological price point is $65 million over three years, while the Cleveland Cavaliers are reportedly in partnership with Goodyear, and their asking price is understood to be $50 million over three years.

Obviously, the price received by the signed teams is far from meeting the expectations of the strong teams, after all, it is also a matter of feeling the stones for the NBA teams, and it will take some time for them to understand the pricing in the market.

In contrast, the jersey advertisements of European football giants have frequently hit high prices in recent years, Manchester United signed 90 million, and Real Madrid spent hundreds of millions of yuan on sponsorship for a season. However, for the time being, whether in terms of advertising influence or commercial development, NBA teams are far from catching up with European football giants.

In fact, the developers of European basketball clubs in jersey advertising are also a big step ahead of the NBA, and the German company Teka is almost unknown because of its sponsorship of the Real Madrid football basketball team, and can always follow the team to appear in the broadcast of important games, which has virtually helped the company to enhance its popularity and value.

Previously, Chinese mobile phone brands Huawei and vivo have tested the waters of sports sponsorship, once swept the international football scene, and in the future, we will also see domestic corporate advertisements appear above the ball of an NBA team. In terms of possibility, the Rockets, Lakers, Warriors and other pairs that are deeply loved by Chinese fans are all good targets. And the Timberwolves, in which Jiang Lizhang is a shareholder, may have a greater advantage in negotiations.

Previously, Chinese companies were already frequent in NBA courtside advertising, will Chinese brands capture jersey advertising in the future?

For sponsors, the size and location of the ad are determined, and they value not only the team's results, but more importantly, the city where the team is located, the number of stars and the number of fans. These directly determine how much they are willing to pay for this ad space.

For the team, in addition to the advertiser's offer, the advertiser's image is positive, whether there is a conflict of interest between the advertiser and the players and TV stations that have been signed, and the additional benefits that can be brought by the sponsorship fee are also important to them.

Not only basic sponsorship, but also off-site cooperation is full of creativity