Who will be the Giants’ jersey sponsor?

Next season, all 30 teams will have sponsor logos on their uniforms. The Padres have already announced theirs: Motorola, inventor of The Brian Sabean Phone.

Marvelous. So simple, yet elegant. A champion.

I’m talking about the phone, of course.

Anyway, back in May, a report said that the San Francisco Giants had partnered with WME Sports to find their uniform sponsor. If this piece is right —

Sports marketing agency ADC Partners co-founder Dave Almy said, “[...]The Giants are going to be much closer to the Red Sox than the Padres, so I’d expect their jersey patch value will come in somewhere around $15 million annually.”

— for about the cost of Brandon Crawford, the Giants’ bold home colors and road grays will be dimmed a bit with some sponsor’s logo. Yeah, this has already been happening this season with the Nike swoosh, and it’s subtle enough that it hasn’t gotten in the way, but that could change with a more obvious logo, which will only be determined by money. I don’t like ads on the uniforms for a lot of reasons, but I get it: this makes teams more money. Nothing that makes the team more money can be bad, right?

They could still screw this up by going with the wrong sponsor. I think even the people who love ads everywhere all the time would agree, since the aesthetic of the team on the field is at least a partial consideration when actually watching baseball. Reminder, for home looks, it’s going to read like [sponsor] GIANTS.

Since corporations are people, using logos is like putting a portrait on the chest of every Giants player. The team and sponsor will spend time figuring out the sizing and placement on the jersey, making sure that portrait looks like a work of art rather than a Sears shoot, so that alone should signal that the logo itself matters. Could a crappy logo-having company time a rebrand with this uniform sponsorship? Absolutely.

But rather than speculate about that possibility, let’s just focus on who might sponsor the Giants and determine if their face looks good. I’ll admit that the team and WME Sports’ global search for a partner complicates this jokey article, because my grasp of international business is... nonexistent. Here’s a list of the most valuable brands of 2020. I’ll pick and choose from that, but since this is all just speculation, I’m really just gonna wing it.

The obvious

Apple

The world’s most profitable company. Practically in the Giants’ backyard. They don’t need to advertise though and maybe there’d be a conflict of interest anyway since they now carry league games on Apple TV+ (I am begging them to change that name).

How would their logo look on the uniform?

Simple. Neat. I’m picturing it (as I will be with all the logos) on the upper right breast, above the G and I. Maybe that won’t be the final spot, but for this article, that’s where I see them. In this case, that little apple would look great there. It’s just too perfect. You could almost miss it, but when you notice it, it’d really pop. They could even change it to the rainbow branding for Pride.

Visa

The new corporate headquarters is right there on Mission Rock. Inflation and the impending recession will have people reaching for credit. Why not use the popularity of the NL West’s third-best team to add more customers?

How would their logo look on the uniform?

VISA GIANTS. One thing that’s unclear is whether or not these logos will uniformly be black or if they will have color. If color, then the Visa logo will simply clash, and having so much blue on a Giants uniform would be another win for the Dodgers in the rivalry. I’m going to guess all the sponsor logos will be black, in which case, sure, why not.

Unlikely, despite **Bay Area ties**

Twitter

The company has been undergoing some... cutbacks.

How would their logo look on the uniform?

The Twitter Giants. Hmm. It would look weird to see all the Giants branded with the Twitter logo. A scarlet letter but for posting / being terminally online. And I say this as someone who’s addicted to it.

Uber / Lyft

Yeah, people still use these services, but do people actually like them? Do they have strong positive association with them? Would the Giants want to promote more driving? I think not.

How would their logo look on the uniform?

Seeing tech words next to real words might feel a little bit like when you try to read in a dream. ON THE OTHER HAND, a jersey front that says Uber GIANTS is a little funny.

eBay

There’s no better service today that helps a regular person find value at the margins, and so why not make the organization’s implicit brand explicit? I also want to hear Larry Baer cough up something like, “We thought it would be fun to bring eBay to the Bay.” On the other hand, the Giants are trying to put it out there that they’re a premium brand and so they will probably not want to associate themselves with the internet’s garage sale.

How would their logo look on the uniform?

It would look ridiculous without the colors: red E, blue B, yellow A, green Y. And when I see eBay GIANTS, I think of people who are really good at buying the last model iPad at auction for, like, $200. Can you imagine if they sponsored the A’s, though? They’d look like the eBay A’s.

Adobe

For $15 a month you can get access to something you used to be able to buy once and use without needing to update frequently. For $15 million a year, this pesky company can remind people for 3+ hours a day for six months that they now have to spend $15 a month on something they used to be able to buy once and use without needing to update frequently.

How would their logo look on the uniform?

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It’s-It

While this would be the most delicious outcome, it’s too regional and their annual revenue wouldn’t warrant such a hefty cost for advertisement, even if they wanted to branch out.

How would their logo look on the uniform?

Not great. The actual lettering is unremarkable, but if they chose to use, like, a vector drawing of the actual sandwich such as the one that’s on the box —

— then from even just a few steps away it would look like a turd. Nobody wants to see players with mud pies on their uniforms.

Would be funny

The Shane Company

Look, they’ve been our friends in the jewelry (if it’s Daughter Shane doing the ad) or diamond (if it’s Papa Shane doing the ad) business for over 40 years. They know a shiny jewel when they see one, and hey, look at that great throw Thairo Estrada just made!

How would their logo look on the uniform?

Shane Co. GIANTS. Their logo isn’t terrible, by the way, but it would make the Giants look as though they were sponsored by the 1950s. Not great branding for a city stuck in the 90s.

Toyota

They already have great market penetration with their various ads featuring beloved Giants figures like Buster Posey, Jon Miller, Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow.

How would their logo look on the uniform?

Toyota GIANTS. Eh.

Hope Not

Capital One

They seem to sponsor everything and, hopefully, the Giants’ various sponsorships from other cards precludes such a partnership. Also, does Farhan Zaidi really want people coming up to him going “What’s in your wallet? Not Aaron Judge!”

Chevron

They’ve already got the left field wall and the all the money in the world!

SalesForce

Boring.

PayPal

Would just be embarrassing for the Giants, with Venmo and Zelle ascending. A little like the Padres going with Motorola.

PG&E

Chevron might be responsible for more deaths globally, but I can’t think of any other company with as much Northern California blood on its hands than this one.

Alphabet

The logo puts me to sleep.

Toshiba

You might be using a Toshiba device right now, in which case, I’m sorry to hear that.

The Dark Horse

Buster Posey

HEAR ME OUT. He might actually be a billionaire. He’s already a part owner. The team needs him as a public face in order to launder their withering public reputation through his perfect perfectness. What’s another $15 million a year to leverage his association with the team to launch him as a national brand? Am I suggesting Buster Posey goop-ify himself? Maybe??

How would their logo look on the uniform?

Could go in a variety of directions here, all of them great because we’re talking about Buster Posey. They could just use his face:

Hmm. That’s Player Posey and in this imagined scenario, it’s supposed to be Owner Posey leveraging the team to boost his own brand.

Marvelous. So simple, yet elegant. A champion.

I’m talking about Buster Posey, of course.

But maybe the face won’t quite read on camera or there could be some brand confusion. It’s important to reduce ambiguity in a noisy market.

Ahhh. Yes. Perfect.

We’ll know very soon whose face the Giants will be wearing next year and beyond. Let’s hope it’s a good one.