First, nobody said "Miami fans will buy merch only if it's Nike". That is just another distorted lie that you tell. As far as fans (of any school) purchasing MORE Nike merchandise than adidas merchandise, that's just proven out by the numbers.
As for what "you remember" during the latter Nike era, nobody cares. You act as if companies FORCE designs on a school, and that's not how things work. If you don't like the designs that were approved by Paul Dee, well, plenty of people did. And if you don't like the designs that were APPROVED by Kirby Hocutt and The Shermanator and Beta Blake, well, you're not alone.
Again, for the millionth time, the JERSEY is not the primary driver of total school merchandise. It is a piece. But you just keep moving the goalposts. At first, you try to tell us about all the "unsold Nike merchandise" that just sat on the shelves (which is untrue), then you flip back to the Nike uniform complaints. You can't EVER stay focused on one issue, and you certainly refuse to answer the question that
@Rellyrell asked.
He won’t & hasn’t responded b/c he knows it will get obliterated.
So let’s set the record straight:
1. The only school that received more gear than us was Oregon, a bonafide Nike School, literally
2. Every new tech available was given to us, every. single. time.
3. Fan apparel was along the same quality as game worn jerseys, just like the NFL, MLB, & NBA fans r now experiencing
4. There was no Fanatics available back in the day, so sales were more regional vs. national
5. The limit in apparel was triggered by the University, just like UCLA just did due to budgeting crisis where they exercised their right to convert supplies into monetary compensation in place.
6. In 2014, Nike provided us w/ new uniforms w/ new tech, tech that was the genesis for their NFL unis.
7. At the time of negotiations, Adidas’ offer was higher than Nike’s most successful CFB program, Alabama, w Miami making roughly $2.2m less than them. No way in the world would Nike pay us more than them for a number of reasons I can’t get in to. It’s also why UA declined to match due to their premiere program’s contract situation. It just happened to be a crescendo
8. I’m not mad at Blake accepting the offer, I’m mad that he nor any from our legal team decided to read the fine print which has now put us behind market value by 2 cycles. Blake, like many who have little experience in financial literacy, wanted to make an impression, & that impression has cost us millions as we should’ve been able to renegotiate by 2021 if he signed a 6 yr deal.
9. Immediately after signing w/ Adidas, along w/ promises made about what it means to be the flagship program, not just in the State of Florida, but the ACC, they literally reneged. Due to Blake’s incompetence, had to be promted to re-read our contract.
10. They wants to scrutinize uniform designs? OK, let’s talk Nike:
-Bra Strap (controversial, but I liked them)
-Clam Ibis
-Mix-matched pro combat
-Highlighter Orange & dark green.
*I’m not including FAMU South b/c that was a team combination choice*
Now let’s examine Adidas uniform designs from 2015-present
-Flamingo + Stencil
-White & Sliver bullet
-Camo
-Tangerine & Aqua
-Strawberry Patches
-The V logo
-All White Soccer Uni w/ Pine Forest Green Maze
-7-11 Miami Nights
-Two different name plates & Adidas logo upon the rebranding (2023)
Like what r we talking about? Not to mention they use our fan site via Adidas to direct u to other programs & to off load any non branded items that happen to be green, aqua, orange, or tangerine.
They talked about Nike not doing anything for Miami when they won the ACC tourney which was pre branding, & Champion was the ACC shirt sponsor at this time, but neglects to mention how Adidas gave us prison/5150 sweatsuits for making The Final 4 w/ zero branding while giving us discount shoes (literally). Meanwhile UCONN & SDSU received custom sweatsuits, & custom PE’s from Nike & JB respectively. Miami got the same **** as FAU. Lol
So I don’t wanna hear about Adidas being a great partner for us. Go ask TAMU, Miss St, UTSA, Fresno St, UofM, UTenn about Adidas’ partnership. Go ask UCLA why they didn’t go back to Adidas or Notre Dame.
If we wanna continue to be associated w/ the 2nd/3rd tier programs, have at it, but I’m sick of bro & his narratives that r flat out false, lack context, & deceiving.
