Georgia Tech football to debut first jersey sponsorship patch Thursday
Georgia Tech football will have a new look when it opens the season Thursday night against Colorado.
The Yellow Jackets will debut a jersey patch featuring Veritiv, a packaging, facility and print solutions company, making it the first sponsorship of its kind in Georgia Tech athletics history.
The multiyear partnership also makes Veritiv the official sustainability partner of Georgia Tech athletics. The Atlanta-based company will work with Tech athletics on reducing waste, making procurement more sustainable, and using data and innovation to improve resource efficiency.
The partnership also gives Veritiv opportunities to work with Georgia Tech student-athletes through name, image and likeness activities.
“In today’s day and age, winning is tied to continuing to generate more resources and your resource base tied to winning has never been so closely aligned in college sports,” Tech athletics director Ryan Alpert said.
Alpert called the process leading to the sponsorship strategic. Tech aimed to find a locally-based company with roots and connections to the university. Veritiv CEO Salvatore A. Abbate is a Georgia Tech graduate who remains engaged on campus.
“It’s a two-way street,” Alpert said. “We needed somebody who believed in Georgia Tech athletics, with where we’re going and where we’re headed and wanted to invest at a high level with us.”
The sponsorship is only for football, Alpert said, although Tech is exploring jersey-patch opportunities for other sports.
The NCAA approved sponsorship logos on game jerseys beginning Aug. 1, making the Veritiv patch one of the first in college football.
“We certainly would have done other sports,” Alpert said. “But I think if you can break up the assets and do it the right way, there’s an opportunity to gain a larger investment across all sports.”
The Veritiv patch will debut Thursday when the Yellow Jackets host Colorado at 8 p.m. at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The game will be televised nationally by ESPN.