Golden State Warriors announce sponsor partnership with Rakuten

The reigning NBA Champions have a jersey sponsor now, and they’ve connected with an overseas company in order to do so. The Warriors have teamed up with Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten on what is reportedly a three-year deal worth a whopping $20 million per year, according to ESPN.

ESPN also noted that the deal is nearly double that of what Goodyear is paying for ad space on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ jerseys. It pays to be the champ, I guess.

For Rakuten, this is another high-profile addition to their sports portfolio. They’ve owned the Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Pacific League since their entrance into the league in 2005, and they also signed up to become the primary shirt sponsor for FC Barcelona this past Summer. Bringing in the Warriors into their fold is a huge move and it’ll surely expand their visibility going forward.

As far as the application of the logo is concerned, I’m not a fan. We’ve seen plenty of teams around the NBA make sure that the logo flowed seamlessly into the team’s identity. The Cavaliers and Celtics are prime examples of how to do this right, and even the Brooklyn Nets did a good job of realizing that a bright red patch on a black-and-white uniform was not going to work. Unfortunately, it seems like the Warriors and Rakuten have agreed to keep Rakuten’s red logo intact, which means that it’ll stick out like a sore thumb on Golden State’s blue-and-gold uniforms.

Maybe they’ll see the light like the Nets did and give this a recolor, but I highly doubt it. Red is a big deal with the folks at Rakuten, so it’ll probably stay that way for the duration of the contract. Plus, with the way players are talking about it, it seems like the red is definitely here to stay.

So, what do you all think of the new partnership? Do you agree that they could’ve done a better job with the application of the new sponsor logo?