The Detroit Pistons, of North American basketball’s NBA, have agreed a merchandising partnership with Legends, the US sports marketing agency.

Under the agreement, Legends will operate ecommerce merchandising for the franchise where Pistons313shop.com will serve as the official team merchandise online platform for the Pistons.

The online store will feature men’s, women’s and youth apparel, as well as official NBA team-licensed on-court team gear such as player jerseys, warm-ups, shooting shirts and novelty items. 

The new online destination will also serve as the merchandise home for the Pistons’ NBA G League affiliate, the Motor City Cruise, and their NBA 2K League esports team, Pistons Gaming Team.

In conjunction with the launch of the online store, the team unveiled new ‘313’ and ‘DET’ logo marks which will be used as part of a new lifestyle-inspired line of off the court apparel to be known as ‘DETail Threads’ which will be sold exclusively at Pistons313shop.com.

Mike Zavodsky, Pistons chief business officer, said: “Our DETail Threads private label and new ‘313’ and ‘DET’ logo treatments provide fans a directional glimpse of our merchandising future and how we intend to utilise the power of Legends’ global expertise to diversify the look and feel of our team apparel offerings.”

In July, Legends signed a similar agreement with Spanish soccer giants Real Madrid.

Meanwhile, the Denver Nuggets and Western Union, the international payments company, have agreed a three-year extension of their jersey sponsorship deal.

As part of the renewal, Western Union’s logo will be featured on all Nuggets jerseys and will continue to receive prominent signage and feature on social media, TV, and radio broadcasts.

The company’s existing three-year deal with the Colorado-based franchise expired at the end of last season. 

Western Union became the Nuggets’ first jersey patch sponsor in the 2017-18 campaign after the league lifted a long-time ban on such branding ahead of that season. 

This is the second significant deal signed by the Nuggets in recent weeks after Ball Corporation, the provider of metal packaging for beverages, foods and household products, agreed a wide-ranging sponsorship deal with the team’s owners Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, the sports facility management firm owned by US billionaire Stan Kroenke, last month.

As part of that agreement, Ball acquired naming rights to the Nuggets’ arena, which had been known as Pepsi Center since it opened in 1999.

Sportcal