The tailored suits and fashionable denim found in every professional sports locker room are beginning to share space with a simpler material and garment: the terry cloth bathrobe. Only, this isn't the robe Tony Soprano wore when he waltzed down the driveway to pick up the morning newspaper in "The Sopranos." This one comes with logos licensed by the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and 34 colleges.

SportRobe investor Matt Light models one of his customized products. Courtesy of Matt Light

SportRobe, which makes the robes ranging in price from $100 to $200, has emerged as a popular choice not only with rabid sports fans but also among athletes.

New England Patriots left tackle Matt Light is one of the company's chief fans, which he should be, given his role as a SportRobe investor. Light has initiated word-of-mouth marketing by wearing a Patriots robe, with his surname and No. 72 on the back, inside the team's locker room at Gillette Stadium. His teammates have taken notice.

"One time I wore my robe, Chad [Ochocinco] was like, 'Oh man, I got a Bengals SportRobe, I love these things,'" said Light, a three-time Pro Bowler and one-time All-Pro, in a telephone interview. "So we ended up getting him a Patriots one."

Light and SportRobe founder Matt Frost explained that athletes ranging from New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez to outfielder Johnny Damon, in his stints with the Detroit Tigers and Tampa Bay Rays, have bought robes for their teammates.

"Light was instrumental in helping us get them into different NFL [locker rooms]," Frost said over the phone.

Light joined the company in 2009, three years after Frost devised the idea for the product. Frost was vacationing in Orlando in August 2006 when he suddenly struck up an idea for a bathrobe jersey.

"I went to my hotel room, threw on a bathrobe and watched SportsCenter," said Frost, who is in the entertainment industry. "I thought how cool it would be if the bathrobe was of my favorite team with my name and number on the back. And I literally just started drawing it out."

To test his idea, Frost had several number and name patches stitched onto regular bathrobes at Gerry Cosby & Co., a sporting goods store formerly in the lobby of Madison Square Garden which has since moved to a nearby location.

Building off that momentum, in 2007 Frost met and signed a deal with McArthur Towels to buy an allotment of robes and the licensing rights to use the New York Yankees' logo on them.

"I remember I wrote a check for $40,000," Frost said. "I was freaking out in my head, like, 'How am I going to make this work?'"

The robes were successfully sold on consignment at Yankees team shops in New York City. In 2010, WinCraft, which holds more than 300 licenses in the sports world, bought McArthur. That set the stage for SportRobe to purchase a wide range of licenses for terry cloth products.

Light came into the picture a year earlier. After witnessing Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker wearing a SportRobe in the locker room one day in '09, a robe which Frost had sent Welker, Light discovered he had an indirect connection to the company. The brother of one of Light's close friends is a friend of Frost and acted as Frost's attorney in drawing up SportRobe's operating agreement.

Light and Frost were introduced. Light was enamored with the company and presented various public relations and marketing ideas to Frost. Light also made a monetary investment in SportRobe, although he wouldn't reveal to what degree. "More of my involvement is time [spent]," said Light, whose three NFL contracts since his rookie year have totaled more than $42 million, according to Spotrac.com.

"I saw this as an opportunity to jump in with something that is unique and exciting," Light said of what drew him to SportRobe. "You can differentiate from everything else yet be closely related to sports."