The Los Angeles Lakers and the Korean food company Bibigo announced a multi-year partnership on Monday that will see the brand featured on team jerseys beginning with the 2021-22 season.
Bibigo is owned by CJ Group, a massive conglomerate. The deal reportedly is for $100 million over 20 years.
Bibigo will be the jersey patch sponsor for the Lakers, with their logo appearing on the upper left part of the jersey, opposite Nike’s logo.
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“This partnership is a connection of two ‘global culture icons’ of food and sports, and it is an important opportunity for Bibigo to emerge as a global food brand,” CJ Corporation CMO Wookho Kyeong said in a news release. “We look forward to the opportunities to communicate with consumers and increase the value of the brand through a global common language, sports and the Lakers.”
In 2017, the NBA unfortunately began allowing teams to put sponsor logos on the upper left part of the jersey. Keeping the jerseys ad-free was one of the things that major US pro sports leagues did differently from foreign leagues. This will be the Lakers first international partnership and by the looks of things, it will be a very profitable one.