The NBA Finals are set to begin with two fresh teams. The Indiana Pacers, who sped through the Eastern Conference, are making the franchise’s first NBA Finals appearance since 2000. The Oklahoma City Thunder—the Western Conference’s representative who owns the NBA’s best record this season—are making their first trip since 2012.
Back then, the NBA didn’t have jersey patch sponsors. When the league moved to Nike as the NBA’s official uniform and apparel maker in 2017, jersey sponsorships came into play. Oftentimes, franchise’s choose a local tie-in for their jersey sponsor—see the Disney logo on each Orlando Magic uniform, for example.
The Pacers and Thunder each have logos on their jerseys that make sense, for vastly different reasons.
The Pacers have maybe the most eye-grabbing sponsorship patch on their jersey in all of sports. The sponsor is Spokenote, and it includes a fully functional QR code that unlocks Pacers content for fans, including some that can’t be seen anywhere else.
The team announced the sponsorship in January 2024, calling the Pacers the first major professional sports franchise in the United States to sport a QR code-like jersey patch.
Spokenote is an Indiana-based tech startup which allows users to pair videos with a unique code. Personal users have used the technology to enhance thank you notes, greeting cards, home deliveries and other personal interactions, while businesses use Spokenote to engage their stakeholders and customers.
The Pacers won the 2024 NBA Changemaker of the Year award for the partnership with Spokenote and creating the first scannable code patch on an NBA jersey. The honor is given to celebrate a franchise driving innovation in fan engagement and technology integration. While the codes on each Pacer player’s jersey may be difficult to scan while watching the NBA Finals on TV, if you see someone walking around in a Pacers jersey, give the patch a scan to see where it takes you.
Love’s Travel Stops, the truck-stop chain which was founded in Western Oklahoma, has their heart-shaped branding adorned to each Thunder jersey. The Love’s heart logo is the only jersey sponsor the franchise has had, which is somewhat a rarity across the NBA.
When Nike became the NBA’s official uniform maker in the 2017-18 season, the league announced that teams could sell one sponsorship to be featured over the front left shoulder of player uniforms. For the Thunder, that jersey sponsor became Love’s and it hasn’t changed since. Love’s has partnered with the franchise long before the NBA allowed jersey sponsors, so the highway hospitality giant jumped at the opportunity to have their logo on Thunder uniforms.
Love’s and the Thunder announced they extended their partnership in April 2023. The expanded partnership brought the logo patch beyond Thunder jerseys to include youth jerseys for the YMCA Thunder Basketball League, which meant YMCA youth athletes in Oklahoma got to wear the exact same jerseys as their favorite team.
Yes. The best place to buy a jersey with the team’s sponsor patch already adorned is the team’s official shop. If you’re not local, the Thunder’s official shop is online at NBAThunderShop.com and the Pacers’ is at PacersTeamStore.com. Fanatics is already selling jerseys for both teams that include the NBA Finals’ patch on the back near the neckline, but it doesn’t appear those jerseys (or most others on Fanatics) come with the sponsorship patch. So depending on the jersey you’re looking for, be sure to head to the right spot.
