The Los Angeles Lakers found their next jersey patch sponsor, and the money says they weren’t hurting for leverage. The franchise announced Wednesday that Albert, a personal financial assistant app, will replace Bibigo on Lakers uniforms beginning with the 2026-27 season. ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, citing a league source, reported the deal carries an annual value north of $30 million.
That number puts the Lakers in the top tier of the NBA’s jersey patch marketplace, which has become its own little economy since the league opened the real estate in 2017. Thirty million a year to stitch a logo on the left chest — and people used to gripe about a swoosh on the shoulder pads.
The Albert patch will appear on the upper left chest of all four Lakers uniform designs: the gold icon edition, the purple statement edition, the white association edition, and the black city edition. According to the release, Albert also adjusted its brand colors to match the Lakers’ gold and purple — a detail that tells you which side of the negotiating table held the cards.
Lakers Governor Jeanie Buss framed the partnership around the franchise’s uniform heritage. “The Lakers have built an extraordinary legacy of championship basketball over the years that has made the purple and gold one of the most popular teams in the world, and the jersey one of the most iconic pieces of apparel in sports,” Buss said in the release. “Generation after generation, we have seen the greatest players in the world wear the Lakers jersey.”
Buss continued: “With each new season, when I first see players in the iconic gold uniform, I’m filled with deep pride, gratitude for the past and excitement for the future. We couldn’t be more proud to place Albert on the Lakers jersey and give our amazing fans visibility to their personal finance products.”
The timing lands at a pivot point for the organization. The Lakers are coming off a 53-29 season that delivered their second straight Pacific Division title. They dispatched the Houston Rockets in five games in the first round before the Oklahoma City Thunder swept them out of the conference semifinals. More consequentially, the 2026-27 season will be the first without LeBron James, who announced he will not return to the team. A new patch on a new-look roster — the franchise is turning the page whether anyone is ready or not.
Bibigo, the Korean food brand under CJ CheilJedang, had served as the Lakers’ patch sponsor since 2021. The Albert deal represents a shift from consumer packaged goods to fintech, a category that has increasingly crowded the NBA’s sponsorship boards as financial apps compete for the millennial and Gen-Z demographics the league delivers in bulk.
For a franchise that has spent decades treating its uniform as sacred ground — the gold, the purple, the block lettering — the patch program remains a relatively new concession. But $30 million annually has a way of clarifying priorities. The film doesn’t lie.
- Bleacher Report — Lakers Announce New Jersey Patch Sponsor
- r/nba — Lakers Announce New Jersey Patch Sponsor – Albert