At Gerrit Cole’s press conference, the Yankees’ $324 million man donned the pinstripes with the interlocking NY and, for the first time, a Nike swoosh on the right chest.
“I don’t hate it,” Cole said.
Traditionalists do, finding it sacrilege, but the reason the swoosh is now located on the front of the Yankees’ uniform is because of MLB wanting to appeal to younger consumers and, not for nothing, a 10-year deal that was valued at, according to sources, more than $1 billion among MLB, Nike and Fanatics.
“Demand is up significantly based on adding the swoosh to the uniform and is bringing in younger consumers to the sport and a marketing halo from Nike,” Michael Rubin, the founder and executive chairman of Fanatics, told The Post.
Rubin had access to the year-over-year sales trends as Fanatics owns Majestic, which had the uniform deal before Nike. He didn’t have the exact figures on hand, but said they were in double digits in terms of percentage.
Rubin and MLB declined to comment on the exact amount of the Nike and Fanatics contract. MLB had previously announced the contract was for a decade, but gave no financial figures.
On MLBshop.com, a Cole No. 45 Nike Yankee uniform was listed at $359.99.
Neither the Yankees nor any other MLB team has ever had a manufacturer’s logo on the front of their jerseys until now.
MLB made the chest position available at a higher price in doing the new contract with Nike and Fanatics, according to the foremost expert on baseball uniforms, Paul Lukas, founder and editor of Uni Watch.
Over the past three decades, other manufacturer logos, most recently Majestic, have appeared on the jersey sleeves of teams. The Yankees were allowed to opt out for “tradition,” according to Lukas.
The Yankees, like all the teams, have had the New Era logo on the side of their caps since the 2016 postseason.
Since 2000, teams, including the Yankees, have worn the logos of third-party corporate advertisers on their jersey sleeves in games in Japan, Mexico and England. Lukas, like many other uniform traditionalists, is anti the swoosh on the pinstripes or any uniform.
“My feeling has always been that the only logo that belongs on a team uniform is the team’s logo,” Lukas said. “A uniform isn’t like other products, or even like other pieces of apparel. It already stands for a brand — the brand of the team. It should never be cluttered up with other branding.”