University of Wisconsin's Badgers Pick Under Armour as Adidas Contract Expires
October 08 2015 - 5:13PM
Dow Jones News
By Sara Germano
Adidas AG is facing its second Big Ten loss of the year.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has agreed to terms of a
proposed 10-year contract between the school and Under Armour Inc.
in which the sportswear maker would provide about $2.5 million
annually in shoes and apparel to the school's 23 athletic teams,
according to documents posted online by the university's Board of
Regents.
The board is expected to vote on the matter on Friday. If
passed, the Badgers would join the University of Michigan's
Wolverines in dropping Adidas AG this year. Over the summer, the
University of Michigan signed a new outfitting deal with Nike Inc.
instead of renewing its contract with Adidas, which has partnered
with the Wolverines since 2008. The Nike contract will take effect
next year.
An Adidas spokeswoman said the company declined to renew its
current deal with the Badgers.
"We evaluate our partnerships and investments to ensure they
provide a high value to our brand," Adidas spokeswoman Maria Culp
said in an email. "We will continue to build partnerships with
universities that inspire young athletes by reflecting creativity,
innovation and a high performance culture."
The University of Wisconsin-Madison would also become the third
Big Ten school to sign with Under Armour, after Northwestern
University and the University of Maryland, the alma mater of the
company's founder and chief executive, Kevin Plank. The terms of
the proposed agreement would take effect in July 2016, after the
current contract with Adidas expires.
The university's Board of Regents declined to comment. Under
Armour didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Adidas has been mounting a significant marketing campaign in
recent months to sign endorsements and outfitting deals with
prominent U.S. sports assets, as a means to recapture declining
sales in the world's biggest sportswear market.
While Adidas is a German brand, two of its most prominent
executives have Wisconsin ties. The company's North American
division president, Mark King, is a Green Bay, Wis, native and an
alumnus of the University of Wisconsin's Green Bay campus. Eric
Liedtke, Adidas's global brands president and a candidate to
succeed the current chief executive, graduated from the
university's Madison campus.
According to the board's agenda, the University of Wisconsin's
athletics, legal affairs, and trademark licensing departments met
with "several shoe and apparel companies" over the past few months
before reaching an agreement with Under Armour.
The Badgers have more than two dozen NCAA titles across several
Division-I sports, according to the athletic department website.
Most recently, the Wisconsin basketball team upset an undefeated
University of Kentucky in this spring's Final Four college
basketball tournament to advance to the NCAA Finals, where the
Badgers lost to Duke University.
Write to Sara Germano at sara.germano@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 08, 2015 16:58 ET (20:58 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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