Who wears what in the German Bundesliga? Which apparel brands are dominating on the Bundesliga pitches? Are most shirt and sleeve sponsors gambling companies?

Below we answer those questions and more by giving you an overview of the sponsors – kit, shirt and sleeve sponsors – of the 2020/2021 Bundesliga clubs. We also take a look at the league’s official partners.

Kit sponsors: 18 clubs, 10 brands

The 18 Bundesliga teams are sponsored by 10 different clothing brands. We will see Adidas, Hummel, Jako, Joma, Kappa, Macron, Nike, Puma, Uhlsport and Umbro on the Bundesliga pitches this year. That is one less than in the 2019/2020 season. However, there is still quite a lot of diversity. Compare it for instance to the 2020/2021 Premier League where there are only seven brands sponsoring 20 teams.

Nike is once again the main kit supplier with five teams. Augsburg, Eintracht Frankfurt, Hertha Berlin, Red Bull Leipzig and VfL Wolfsburg all wear the American brand.

Adidas, Jako, Puma and Umbro follow by each sponsoring two teams.
This season Adidas doubled their Bundesliga portfolio by adding Union Berlin. Although the three-striped brand sponsors only one other team, they have a lot of visibility because it is eight-time defending champion Bayern Munich.

German brand Puma sponsors 2019/2020 runner-ups Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach. Jako supplies Leverkusen and promoted side Stuttgart. While Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen wear Umbro.

Hummel, Joma, Kappa, Macron and Uhlsport complete the list by each sponsoring one team.

Like last season, seven of the Bundesliga teams are sponsored by German brands. However, where there were five different German brands last season (Adidas, Puma, Uhlsport, Jako and Saller), there are only four this edition.

Three teams switched brands for the 2020/21 season. Promoted side Arminia Bielefeld switched from Joma to Macron, Mainz from Lotto to Kappa and Union Berlin from Macron to Adidas.

2020/21 Bundesliga Shirt Sponsors

The Bundesliga allows only one front shirt sponsor. So far 17 out of 18 teams have a shirt sponsor. Three teams changed shirt sponsor for the 2020/2021 season. Firstly, Dortmund changed from Evonik to telecommunications company 1&1. In addition, Borussia Mönchengladbach agreed a deal with online trading platform Flatex, hence ending their long-term partnership with Postbank. While Hertha Berlin has no new shirt sponsor (so far).

The shirt sponsors can be categorised into 12 different industries. Far more than in the Premier League. As a result there is less competition among sponsors for the same market. Five industries have each two companies active as jersey sponsor: the construction supplier, financial services, food, insurance and telecommunications industries.

In contrast to the Premier League where eight teams have a gambling shirt sponsor in 2020/2021, no Bundesliga team has a main sponsor that could be categorised as a gambling company.

The companies come mostly from Germany. 13 out of 17 (76%) of the shirt sponsors have their headquarters in Germany. There are three other European sponsors and only one non-European sponsor.

2020/21 Bundesliga Sleeve Sponsors

Since the 2017/18 season Bundesliga clubs are allowed to broker their own sleeve sponsorships. Before that the league’s governing body had a league-wide sleeve sponsorship deal with Hermes Group.

17 teams have confirmed a sleeve sponsor for the 2020/2021 season. Freiburg is the only team with no sleeve sponsor for now after ending their deal with Badenova.

The 2020/2021 sleeve sponsors (known so far) can be categorised into 12 different industries. So like with the shirt sponsors there is a lot of variety in the kind of companies. The automotive (4), gambling (2) and insurance (2) industries each sponsor more than one team.

No club has the same shirt and sleeve sponsor. However, Hoffenheim’s sleeve sponsor SNP and shirt sponsor SAP are related to one another.

Note: The table below may be subject to changes when new sleeve sponsors are announced.

2020/2021 Bundesliga sponsors

The Bundesliga lists only five partners on their website. One more than last season. AWS (Amazon Web Services) has been added as technology partner.
It is not clear whether these are indeed the only partners at the moment. In September 2018 the German league association announced the extension of their partnership with TAG Heuer.

The 2020/2021 Bundesliga runs from September 18th, 2020 till May 22nd, 2021.