This summer, especially if you’re a major league baseball fan, be prepared to see lots of Nintendo logos. The Seattle Mariners announced Thursday that they have partnered with Nintendo as the team’s “first-ever jersey sleeve partner.” In other words, the Nintendo logo and the Nintendo Switch 2 logo will be featured on Mariners players’ sleeves starting March 27th.
The Nintendo RaceTrack logo appears on the Mariners home jersey, while the (very intense) Switch 2 logo appears on the team’s away jersey. According to the Mariners, it will be the first Seattle-based team to feature a variety of marks for home and away games in MLB.
“Nintendo and the Mariners have been closely linked since 1992,” Kevin Martinez, president of business operations at Seattle Mariners, said in a statement. Martinez refers to when Nintendo, USA, based in Redmond, Washington, bought the Mariners in the early 90s. (Nintendo sold its team stake in 2016.) “Now, every time the Mariners go to the field, our jersey sleeves help remind us of everything Nintendo America has done for the Northwest community and the team.”
The logos of video game companies appearing on US-based sports teams are extremely rare. Game brands are common in sports race circles and European soccer leagues, with Seattle being the exception. Another local team, Seattle Sounders FC, featured the Xbox logo on its 2009-2016 jerseys.
Although all ads for MLB jerseys were banned prior to 2022, the 2022-2027 collective bargaining agreement will allow for a small shoulder patch with a corporate logo or image on one sleeve of the player’s uniform and batting helmet.
Next week you can see the new Nintendo branding from the Seattle Mariners.
