Does everyone forget the reports that for a few years near the end of the contract that Nike had us practicing/playing in old gear? That they wouldn't send us new cleats or practice jerseys when ours were all falling apart/faded? And besides football...apparently that was happening in multiple sports?
You can have your issues with Adidas, which is fine, but Nike doing that to us was wrong when we were one of the biggest name schools they had. It's inexcusable.
Should we ever swap out of Adidas and go back to Nike or Jordan brand, Radakovich had better learn from history and make sure there's a clause in the contract to never allow that **** to happen ever again. If you're going to wear someone's brand, they'd better be willing to supply all the apparel/equipment needed, period.
Not sure if I responded to this post, but I did like it. In this thread, I hit up D$ to provide an explanation of what might’ve taken place in that scenario:
In Nike’s contract, a school has an option to convert apparel allotment into cash allotment. UCLA is struggling right now, financially, due to Covid & UA’s breach of contract. Come next yr, UCLA is going to forgo gear & take the $$. That means replacements & things like that all have to be done in house, b/c they’re substituting supplies for cash. (Part of the reason they’re eager to bounce the Pac-12)
I’m not saying that was the case w/ us, but just knowing who was in charge, it would’ve appeared that way. Truth be told, even though Nike had some horrible, futuristic designs at times, we were always the 1st to receive their latest concepts/tech.
Here’s from 2010, 4 yrs away from not renewing our contract:
High performance Nike Pro Combat uniforms in new designs for 10 elite college programs reflect the teams’ traditions, character and culture.
news.nike.com
And this was from 2014
New uniform design combines iconic history with a modern edge.
news.nike.com
I believe there’s a lot of things that’s been taken out of context over the yrs. We were Nike’s first, yes, and they treated us as such. To take the time to design new uniforms for a squad takes effort. I’m not talking about adding a plastic shield on a uniform so The U don’t become a V; I’m talking about literally designing from top to bottom, trying to combine history w/ future.
Now, did I personally like some of these concepts?? Hellllll no & u will never see those unis in my repertoire, but the fact is this: Outside of NikeU or UO, no other squad has had more uniforms created for them outside of us. Now, we can debate & say “just keep it simple or traditional” & that’s fine, but that’s not my point; the point is Nike DID care for us & treated us very well, DESPITE how far WE went away from being The U they fell in love w/. That’s like me meeting a hot chick, we vibe, we rock & we get married, then w/in our marriage, she completely stop taking care of herself, refuse to get her chit together, including abandoning our partnership looking to get taken care of w/o helping me grow. Imma love her, but wtf am I supposed to do w/ that?
At the end of the day, Nike still flirts w/ us by re-releasing color ways specifically to our U. They had the same love for UofM, & ironically both UofM & us did the same chit, including thinking the grass was greener w/ the other company.
Speaking of UofM, their players r now getting paid for jerseys w/ their names on them. The authentic jerseys, not some random chit. Lol