Leave it to Mr. Beast to make history. This week the Charlotte Hornets announced that “Feastables” would be their jersey patch sponsor for the 2023-24 season, marking the first time an influencer has been the sponsor of a professional sports team.
The Charlotte Hornets’ new sponsor is .... Mr. Beast?!
Whoa.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
The brand is Mr. Beast’s line of chocolate bars and gummies that launched last year. It takes over from LendingTree, who were the Hornets patch sponsors up to this point. The patch sponsor program began in the 2017-18 season and features dozens of smaller brands on official NBA uniforms. This has allowed for some bizarre mashups including Crypto.com for the Sixers, Love’s Truck Stops for the Thunder, and Bibigo for the Lakers — but Mr. Beast is an entirely different thing.
There is a regional link here. Mr. Beast was born and still lives in Greenville, North Carolina in the east of the state, where he films the majority of his videos with his friends. It’s still a little jarring to see an NBA team go all-in with a YouTuber like this, even if it’s to represent his brand of candy.
Not only did the team do a full-on blitz with players doing Mr. Beast-style challenges, but they sent Hugo Hornet, the team’s beloved mascot, down to Greenville to meet Mr. Beast.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this progresses. It’s very easy to scoff at Mr. Beast’s involvement, but the partnership could open up the Hornets to millions of out of state fans they wouldn’t have otherwise. It’s definitely one of the most interesting jersey patches we’ve seen in some time.
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