Under Armour out of the running; decision coming in June

Submitted by DISCUSS Man on

per el twitter

Under Armour reportedly out of UM apparel race. Nike/Adidas will duke it out; Adidas still offering ~ $4M more annually. Decision late June

— Teddy Blanks (@MaizeAndBlue14) May 23, 2015

Also, Adidas' pitch reportedly includes proposal to dull their yellow—no more highlighter/neon. So there's that..

— Teddy Blanks (@MaizeAndBlue14) May 23, 2015

evenyoubrutus

May 23rd, 2015 at 4:55 PM ^

If we are we shouldn't be. The guy's claim to fame was a happenstance relationship with an agent who represented Harbaugh in his NFL dealings (although had nothing to do with his negotiations with Michigan). He has no other informants and even that source was extremely dubious. There is even suspicion he is a high school student.

maizenbluedevil

May 23rd, 2015 at 10:09 PM ^

No.

This pisses me off so much.

So, if we threaten to leave, THEN they'll attempt to get their shot together? They can go fuck themselves.

If we sign with Adidas again I will be so pissed. Their stuff sucks ass. I miss having the desire to buy michigan apparel and the reality is I haven't for a decade. The reason isn't that the product on the field has been bad, it's that the product made by Adidas is worse.




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GoBLUinTX

May 23rd, 2015 at 9:38 PM ^

It isn't UM that would be walking away from money, it is that Nike doesn't have to offer UM $4M more than Adidas because they don't need the business like Adidas needs the business.  There is a saying in the world of sales, "Anybody can sell on price point, it takes a salesman to sell the product."  Evidently Nike doesn't believe they should be giving away their product so cheaply.

justingoblue

May 23rd, 2015 at 5:18 PM ^

You're probably right that they don't need to, in the sense that the lights will still be on and Harbaugh's paychecks aren't going to bounce if they leave money on the table. Still, they spent something like twelve million to get rid of the last staff and Brandon and bring in Harbaugh, the debt service alone hit $15mm last year, and they cut student ticket prices.

Michigan brings in a ton of dough, but on the tail end of a $750mm(!) spending campaign, the cash needs to come from somewhere, and I'm definitely in favor of getting it from Adidas as opposed to more expensive tickets, new ads, six dollar water, ect.

MGlobules

May 23rd, 2015 at 8:50 PM ^

no ugly uni ever needs see the field with any of these corporate behemoths. Final responsibility ALWAYS lay with the Athletic Department. Go online and read more than superficially about the two companies and what you learn is that Nike probably makes the better expensive running shoe. After that there are more similarities than differences--they often use the same materials; designers move back and forth between the companies; they rip off one anothers' designs with desperate regularity; and they often produce stuff in the selfsame factories.

The mystagogy that attends conversations about this stuff here is embarrassing. Let's all get over ourselves and find some other minutiae to get lost in.

AZBlue

May 23rd, 2015 at 5:27 PM ^

It's $4mm per year for M plus similar bumps for 6-8 other schools that will demand to be at least close to M and subsequent bumps down the pecking order of schools.  Do you think 'Bama or OSU is going to accept that much less than us?  I would assume the M deal on the table is very comparable..maybe even slightly better.....than those schools.

 

Adidas has to overpay for M - particularly now that they lost ND - as we were/are the only premier school for football they have.

karpodiem

May 23rd, 2015 at 6:12 PM ^

An extra $4 million in sales because its Nike may be true in year one/two, once everyone has replenished their game. I know I've been holding off dropping a couple hundred for replacement t-shirts/polos/hoodies/light jackets until the switch.

Even if in year 3 -> beyond, if sales come to an extra $2 mil. instead of the guranteed $4mil that adidas provides...Just Do It.

pearlw

May 23rd, 2015 at 7:14 PM ^

And if licensing revenue is 6mm, its ridiculous to think it could increase by 4mm/yr and jump to 10mm in one year because of the change in brand name. Most casual fans hardly know which brand the shirts are and buy them because they say Michigan and could care less what brand it is.




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Mr Miggle

May 23rd, 2015 at 7:39 PM ^

That number isn't all from Adidas. They have been paying $3,8M plus providing equipment.

I've seen lots of people here and elsewhere throwing out numbers about additional sales under Nike. I feel like those numbers have all just been plucked out of thin air. Does anyone even know if we get a cut of sales or just a guarantee? If so, what kind of numbers?  All the articles I've seen only mentioned guaranteed money in the contracts for Michigan and other schools.

skwasha

May 23rd, 2015 at 9:30 PM ^

Actually, I'm not. Quoting from the Budget I posted:

Licensing Royalties: Licensing royalties are primarily from apparel and product licenses that use the University's mark in merchandising operations....

Some, not all of that $6.3M is directly from the the cut Michigan gets for every t-shirt sold with the M on it.

ESNY

May 23rd, 2015 at 11:40 PM ^

The great majority doesn't give a shit whose logo is on the shirt. Ugly is ugly and don't care if it has a swoosh or a few bars (or whatever the Adidas logo is) and both companies make just as many brutally hideous clothes as each other. To think there are thousands of fans just itching to buy clothes if we switch to Nike or would immediately replace their gear just for a damn swoosh is insane.