The Dynamo are the first club to sell MLS’s new back-of-kit logo placement as a standalone sponsorship asset, striking a multiyear deal with Dude Wipes. MLS teams can begin wearing sponsor logos on the backs of their jerseys after the July 29 MLS All-Star Game, with Dude Wipes set to make its Dynamo debut on Aug. 1.
Inter Miami sold its back-of-kit placement to Nubank earlier this year as part of its stadium naming-rights deal with the firm, but the Dynamo are believed to be the first to sell the asset on its own.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Dynamo CRO Nico Zini said the deal is the team’s third largest behind its naming-rights agreement with Shell Energy and its front-of-kit deal with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The team is also in the market for a jersey sleeve sponsor, which Zini expects to have in place for the 2027 sprint season.
Zini said valuation work conducted for the club by an outside agency suggests the back-of-kit placement is slightly less valuable than the sleeve, which runs counter to NYCFC President Brad Sims’ belief that the back is “as valuable or slightly more valuable” than the sleeve.
Either way, the back of the jersey was the target for Dude Wipes. The brand’s CMO, Ryan Meegan, told Digiday last month that its strategy is “being on the butt” of uniform sponsorships. The disposable-wipes brand became the “official backside partner” of the Premier Lacrosse League earlier this year, putting its logo on the lower back of every player’s jersey across the league.
The brand is staying on theme with its Dynamo marketing campaign, which carries the tagline, “Space City has Uranus covered.” Branded content series will include “We’ve Got Your Back, Presented by Dude Wipes” and “Clean Sheet = Clean Back.”
Zini said Dude Wipes reached out to several MLS teams after learning about the newly introduced back-of-kit inventory.
“Dude Wipes was aware of the back-of-kit being released in MLS, so they started talking to markets in which they had interest about this potential partnership,” Zini said. “And we basically went for it. We did a full presentation, a full partnership step-by-step from ideations to presenting the visual decks and all the campaigns, and we took the business home.”
Dude Wipes was represented by its sports agency of record, Gallagher Sports, in negotiations with the Dynamo. The brand previously served as NYCFC’s sleeve sponsor from 2022 to 2024, but the Dynamo deal is its only active MLS partnership. It also sponsors NASCAR, the Eagles, the Browns, Duke University and Auburn University.
Jerseys sold in the Dynamo team store will immediately include the Dude Wipes logo, and current jersey owners will have the opportunity to add the new back-of-kit sponsor mark to their existing jerseys.
All MLS back-of-kit deals are expected to include a carve-out for Adidas Archive Collection third jerseys, which do not feature front-of-kit sponsor logos. Instead, those kits carry the primary jersey sponsor’s logo on the back. The Dynamo’s new Archive Collection jersey, which is slated to debut later this season, will feature the MD Anderson Cancer Center logo on the back.
