Bouj Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Well, this is quite the surprise. Under Armour takes over for Majestic in 2020. Fanatics gets the apparel rights. Nike and Majestic are out of the MLB Licensing business. http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2016/10/17/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Under-Armour.aspx Go Astros!Go Texans!Go Rockets!Go Javelinas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont care Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Wow I'm surprised majestic wouldn't match any offer given by any company. Without the MLB contract what else do they really got? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WSU151 Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 I'm wondering if the unique stitching on some of the uniforms (e.g, Cardinals, Phillies) will be changed. It'd be interesting to know just how much it took for Majestic to say "We can't match that offer by UA and Fanatics." Smart is believing half of what you hear. Genius is knowing which half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBGKon Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 I like this move. UA seems to have some great creative background. I can wonder if we could see a D-Backs rebrand around that time, but with better execution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bouj Posted October 17, 2016 Author Share Posted October 17, 2016 34 minutes ago, WSU151 said: I'm wondering if the unique stitching on some of the uniforms (e.g, Cardinals, Phillies) will be changed. It'd be interesting to know just how much it took for Majestic to say "We can't match that offer by UA and Fanatics." I don't see why it would be a problem. Chain-stitching is a known technique. It's done by many companies and embroiderers. Go Astros!Go Texans!Go Rockets!Go Javelinas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRice16 Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 44 minutes ago, WSU151 said: I'm wondering if the unique stitching on some of the uniforms (e.g, Cardinals, Phillies) will be changed. It'd be interesting to know just how much it took for Majestic to say "We can't match that offer by UA and Fanatics." It's bigger than just saying that. It's MLB consolidating the on-and off-field apparel contracts currently held by every company not named New Era. That put Majestic at a decided disadvantage to Under Armour, who already produces a wide line of performance products and can easily fill the roles and spaces once held by Nike, adidas and others. Fanatics has the ability to take the blank products produced by UA, house them at its distribution facilities, and customize/ship them in one day. It takes the middle man out of the equation for Fanatics. They've been working on this for a couple of years and almost did this same deal with UA and the NBA. This is Fanatics' end game, to control every element of a league's apparel marketing and distribution, even for products not sold through their outlets. This is also a huge shot to Lids, who did much of the distribution work for Majestic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 10 minutes ago, BRice16 said: It's bigger than just saying that. It's MLB consolidating the on-and off-field apparel contracts currently held by every company not named New Era. That put Majestic at a decided disadvantage to Under Armour, who already produces a wide line of performance products and can easily fill the roles and spaces once held by Nike, adidas and others. Fanatics has the ability to take the blank products produced by UA, house them at its distribution facilities, and customize/ship them in one day. It takes the middle man out of the equation for Fanatics. They've been working on this for a couple of years and almost did this same deal with UA and the NBA. This is Fanatics' end game, to control every element of a league's apparel marketing and distribution, even for products not sold through their outlets. This is also a huge shot to Lids, who did much of the distribution work for Majestic. Sounds horrible, i doubt they can do as good a job as Majestic does. Where will they find the people to do those authentic jerseys that are being sold to fans now, that are exacly the same as the players use. I fear there will be differences from what the players wear to what the fans can buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBGKon Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 13 minutes ago, Thomas said: Sounds horrible, i doubt they can do as good a job as Majestic does. Where will they find the people to do those authentic jerseys that are being sold to fans now, that are exacly the same as the players use. I fear there will be differences from what the players wear to what the fans can buy. Majestic was already beginning to lower quality on replica jerseys in the past few seasons, but UA's replica gear is pretty nice. I could see tiers like Nike has with the NFL in MLB with UA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bouj Posted October 17, 2016 Author Share Posted October 17, 2016 UA will have a few years to ramp up production to meet fan demand. Don't forget that Majestic also makes the dugout jackets/hoodies/BP jerseys/next season's replacement for BP jerseys. So it's an all-new operation for them. Maybe get a look at some college team that is head-to-toe UA. That might be a preview. Go Astros!Go Texans!Go Rockets!Go Javelinas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucs007 Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 A quick look at South Carolina's home baseball unis and they're fairly standard pinstripe set. Ditto for the rest of their current lineup. Still several years to go, but while I'm sure a few changes will happen, it might be no different for some teams than when Majestic took over in 2005. I assume the classic teams will remain the same (perhaps a change in the material), but nothing outrageously different from what we see now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Just don´t understand how a store, in this case Fanatics could do as good a job as Majestic. I know the jerseys, even authentic ones, you buy from the NHL.com store are crap, and is not customized to every team´s unique, different and exact specifications. Could this happen now with MLB ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osctheg Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 IDK but could make possible rebrand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp1409 Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 :censored:... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kroywen Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 I'm not looking forward to this change at all. Majestic stayed fairly conservative in uniform design, with two notable exceptions that were mainly driven by those teams' respective front offices (Arizona and Miami, obviously). And even Miami was not off the wall at all - the fact that we all considered the Marlins' 2012 rebrand as "outside the box" shows how conservative baseball has remained relative to other major sports. I wouldn't expect huge changes with Under Armour in 2020, just because I don't think most front offices will want to massively overhaul their teams' looks that much. At an extreme, there's always the (unlikely) chance of an Edge-style takeover of all 30 teams, which would be utterly disastrous in a sport like baseball. But what's more likely is Under Armour getting a chance to go off-the-wall with a few teams' looks. Arizona, Miami, and San Diego are the obvious prime candidates (maybe the O's and Nats as well, since they're in UA's backyard), but there very well may be other teams that go down that road as well. And UA will likely make some slight modifications to some other teams' looks - wordmark and logo updates, sleeve patches, different uniform cuts, new alts, etc. - and I'm not particularly hopeful that they'll be positive developments. Likely to be a mixed bag, based on historical precedent in other leagues. I suppose what bothers me is that baseball generally looks really good overall right now. There's tweaks I'd make to most teams, and there's a few in need of rebrands (San Diego and Milwaukee are the foremost examples), but MLB almost certainly has the strongest set of uniforms of any of the four major leagues right now. They're not in need of major change across-the-board. I just hope UA doesn't try to rock the boat too much. But they might have to try in order to justify the expense of the contract. (And I really hope the Yanks can keep their no-logo exception intact. The New Era logo on the cap next year will be bad enough - I'm loathe to see a "UA" show up on the pinstripes come 2020.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFGiants58 Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 9 minutes ago, kroywen said: (And I really hope the Yanks can keep their no-logo exception intact. The New Era logo on the cap next year will be bad enough - I'm loathe to see a "UA" show up on the pinstripes come 2020.) Thanks to an apparel deal with Adidas (of all companies) that the Yankees signed many years ago, Majestic (and Russell/Rawlings earlier) legally couldn't put their logo on the sleeve. I forgot the source on that one, but I'm assuming it'll continue with UA. Heck, for most teams, I assume they'll simply be swapping out the manufacturer's logo on the sleeve. Judging by their college teams, Cool/Flex Base panels will probably go away under UA, and we could get the faux-flannel fabric for throwbacks. That alone is an upgrade. MLB: Project 32 (Complete), MLB: The Defunct Saga (Complete) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjd77 Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 I'd be real curious what happens to Majestic after this. Will they even be able to stay in business? They produce tiny amounts of NBA and NFL apparel compared to what they do for MLB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_hwedel Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 UA did make these fantastic (IMO) throwbacks for the All-America game a few years back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJWalker45 Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 49 minutes ago, mjd77 said: I'd be real curious what happens to Majestic after this. Will they even be able to stay in business? They produce tiny amounts of NBA and NFL apparel compared to what they do for MLB. They'll probably turn into an outfit like Starter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJD7 Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 This is somewhat disappointing news for me, to be honest. I've always been pretty interested in what someone like Nike could do for MLB, since they (for the most part) to me seem to have a good sense on each team's branding when designing a uniform, as opposed to adding gimmicks just for the heck of it. I'm not saying Under Armour is going to do this, but I'm just a little bit more nervous, is all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kroywen Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 1 hour ago, SFGiants58 said: Thanks to an apparel deal with Adidas (of all companies) that the Yankees signed many years ago, Majestic (and Russell/Rawlings earlier) legally couldn't put their logo on the sleeve. I forgot the source on that one, but I'm assuming it'll continue with UA. Heck, for most teams, I assume they'll simply be swapping out the manufacturer's logo on the sleeve. Judging by their college teams, Cool/Flex Base panels will probably go away under UA, and we could get the faux-flannel fabric for throwbacks. That alone is an upgrade. I wasn't sure on how the exception for the Yankees started up, but not surprised it was Adidas. The Yanks signed a very wide-ranging deal with Adidas back in 1997 (in spite of not being an official MLB licensee at the time, which caused quite a bit of consternation on Park Ave.) that pretty much called for the Adidas logo to be plastered everywhere except the uniforms (which weren't made by Adidas). Not that the Yankees wore a manufacturer's logo prior to the 1997 Adidas deal, but after that deal was signed, the notion of the Yankees wearing any other manufacturer's logo was unfathomable. I will be quite happy to see Cool/Flex Base go. The cut on those uniforms is downright terrible, and is completely incompatible with pinstriped uniforms. The faux flannel might actually look good on some teams' road uniforms, in addition to throwbacks - teams with simple road uniforms would pull it off best, like the Yankees, Dodgers, and White Sox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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