Under Armour adding a B1G school

[andrewharrington]

Kinda surprising that it's them considering Adidas was making special uniforms for them this season.

I'm not positive, but Northwestern may have still been buying their uniforms from adidas (normally contract schools get free equipment). I think the special uniform was kind of a last-ditch effort to convince them to stay on.

They were not buying them, Northwestern had an all-sport deal with Adidas, just as they now do with Under Armour. UA overpaid, in my opinion. Northwestern apparel represented less than 2% of Adidas' licensed college sales. The school was also very opposed to new special uniforms and changes to drive merchandise sales. The special uniforms this year came after years of attempts by Adidas to roll out something different.

With those factors in place, Adidas could barely justify renewing at the previous number. They had the contractual right to match any offer from UA and declined.

Well damn, you know more than I do about it and I work there.

[BRice16]

They were not buying them, Northwestern had an all-sport deal with Adidas, just as they now do with Under Armour. UA overpaid, in my opinion. Northwestern apparel represented less than 2% of Adidas' licensed college sales. The school was also very opposed to new special uniforms and changes to drive merchandise sales. The special uniforms this year came after years of attempts by Adidas to roll out something different.

With those factors in place, Adidas could barely justify renewing at the previous number. They had the contractual right to match any offer from UA and declined.

Well damn, you know more than I do about it and I work there.

Nah, I just know a lot of Adidas people at different schools.

UA is in the position that Adidas was in the late 90s, they are going to spend big to get a few schools and grow their collegiate business, since they know they're locked out of the majority of the NFL deal for at least 8 years.

You're going to see Adidas and UA be more aggressive with schools as their Nike deals come up for this reason. They've got money to commit.

Don't get me wrong, Nike makes a ton and will still have plenty of cash to throw at schools, but mark my words, they'll lose a few over the next few years.