Milwaukee Bucks unveil Nike uniforms, Harley-Davidson sponsor’s patch

The Milwaukee Bucks unveiled their new Nike uniforms on Thursday morning, along with the Harley-Davidson sponsorship patch that will be featured on them.

The Milwaukee Bucks unveiled two of their uniforms for the 2017-18 season early on Thursday morning, along with the announcement of the team’s new jersey sponsor too.

The jerseys which were denoted as the “Home” and “Road” last year will be known as “Association” and “Icon” respectively from now on.

In style, the jerseys will look largely familiar to Bucks fans, as the styling of the green and white uniforms is almost identical to their appearance since the franchise’s rebrand a couple of years ago.

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The most striking difference comes on the commercial side, with the Nike “swoosh” adorning the right shoulder, and the Harley-Davidson logo taking pride of place on the left side.

The coming season will mark the first year of the NBA’s latest deal that will allow teams to feature corporate sponsors logos on a small patch on the team’s uniforms.

With every team being tasked with negotiating their own sponsorship deals individually, the Bucks became just the 12th team to announce their jersey partner so far.

Matt Pazaras, the Bucks’ senior vice president of business development and strategy, explained to Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel why Harley-Davidson was the best partner for the organization.

"“We think we found the absolute perfect partner for this.You have somebody with a history that starts here in Milwaukee, a very long history — their 115th anniversary is next year — (and) they have a global presence and global reach much like the NBA.”"

Pazaras went on to explain how the devotion that people show to Harley-Davidson as a brand was another part of the appeal.

"“The thing for me that sent it over the top and why we’re so excited is to have a consumer brand that drives so much passion. Yes, the (Harley-Davidson) logo’s going to be on our uniforms, but people tattoo it on their bodies. Something that drives that much passion from a consumer side is incredibly exciting for us.”"

The official unveiling took place at the Harley-Davidson Museum, as Bango arrived on stage on a Harley-Davidson, where Bucks center Thon Maker and president Peter Feigin were already waiting alongside a pair of mannequins displaying the new uniforms.

Feigin revealed on stage that the deal between the Bucks and Harley-Davidson for the jersey patch sponsorship will last for three years.

Harley-Davidson’s status as an iconic brand around the world who are also deeply connected to and associated with Milwaukee, makes the partnership an obvious one for the Bucks from a business standpoint.

If there’s one downside to the deal, it comes with the fact that Harley-Davidson’s iconic black and orange color scheme isn’t a more seamless fit with the Bucks’ own colors. With other brands, a green and cream version of their logo could have been placed on the jersey, but as Harley-Davidson is synonymous with black and orange, that was likely never an option in this case.

The Bucks will have three more uniforms to unveil over the coming months, as they will have a “Classic” uniform (reported to be from the 1968-73 set), along with one to represent “Community” and another for the “Athlete’s Mindset”.

Next: Milwaukee Bucks reportedly among teams with classic uniforms in 2017-18

Assuming the Bucks fall in line with the timeline of many of the rest of the NBA’s teams, those jerseys can be expected to be unveiled in Fall/Winter.