Sure, Nike is paying Cal, but they're not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. The article doesn't say how much they're paying Cal -- hopefully more than what UA was paying -- but if Nike doesn't think they'll make that money back (and more) from sales of ridiculously overpriced Nike/Cal merch, then Nike's shareholders would have a righteous claim against the company.
Great. We get to keep subsidizing Phil Knight, Stanfurd and the Ducks. He has given over $500 million to their business school. I hope he can find it in his wealthy heart to send some moola our way as well.
I'm curious about the "lower body injuries" that so many Cal players seemed to suffer from in recent years...could that somehow been shoe-related to UA's equipment, or is better to maybe point the finger at the choice of turf currently used in the stadium?
Maybe Bancroft Clothing will stock Cal gear again? Nothing can be more depressing for an old Cal fan than walking into Bancroft Clothing these days. Once my Cal merchandise Mecca, there's is hardly a trace of Cal on the shelves now.
Nah. More a result of the pandemic's effect on retail and foot traffic (no students or games for a long while), and declining interest in the Cal brand. They almost halved the store space in the past year or two, and got rid of that one wing with all the Cal gear and now seem to almost exclusively sell 501s and stock sweatshirts and tees.
Confused about the BSN Sports part. It almost feels like we're just getting nike stuff from them vs being an actual nike school. But maybe that's just how this works?
BSN works with A LOT of Nikes smaller clients. As a distribution company they try to leverage being the place to buy logo gear for schools that don't have a great distribution system of their own. I think they also add value with design, but I'm not clear on that. Search on NIKE and BSN and you'll see lots of really third tier schools, even conferences, listed. It probably is a good thing, but feels like a real step down in prestige and might mean very little value actually compared to what we saw with UA...
Fingers crossed this is just a quick step up from the radioactive crater that was UA uni contract and FTX naming happening together. I know a lot of supposedly smart people took FTX money, and who could have guessed that the money race Adidas/Nike/UA/Joe's Shoe Palace would eventually kill one of the players... but I would think even Crist would be breathing down Knowlton's neck for this kind of business failure.
UA wanted out, but it was serious money (hence they wanted out). What we have now via this BSN company appears to be a total joke. I guess we'll find out when the details come out, but this looks like some kind of FCS or D2 level contract.
I think I remember that Learfield brokered the deal. They agreed to be paid in crypto and pass the cash to CAL (or something like that?). This sounds like they had full control and CAL didn't get to approve the name...? I can believe it but ... wow ... even if you just mean that someone outside the athletic dept approved it then that's still kinda wow. Immodium AD field. Come play for CAL and you won't crap on the field! That would sound great to HS kids...
Yeah, I went to BSN's site and thought aw shit this looks like something high schools and little leagues use to buy stuff a la carte. Is Knowlton just shopping online now for our uniforms and equipment but pretending we're getting them for free to save face?
If he was going to do something like this, he likely missed an opportunity to have Marshawn Lynch's BeastMode handle things rather than a third party that looks like the place where I order my elementary school's gear...
Having always been an Adidas wearer, I noticed this year a lot of the premier teams rocking Adidas, which surprised me. Maybe this stuff just goes in cycles. But glad to see this locked down regardless.
I always was a Nike shoe guy. For basketball shoes and cross trainers, they were always the most comfortable. Until my son got me to buy a pair of Ultraboosts. They are so comfortable. I'll keep buying Nike basketball shoes but I'm a convert to Ultraboosts.
Adidas makes great bball shoes for fit, performance and value, but I've never liked any of their designs. Since I'm a total poseur, I almost exclusively buy Nikes.
Nike started becoming too narrow for me in the mid-2000's Cant tell if my feet continued to grow wide, or if they started making them more narrow. Granted I usually buy the 4E wide version of shoes, but I can more or less fit into most other brands if not a little uncomfortably, while Nike without exception is always too narrow compared to the others.
Nike's shirt sizing is inconsistent between its own products, let alone other brands. I usually order two sizes and keep the one that fits better. So I have some L and some XL.
The shoes can be inconsistent too but not nearly as often as the clothes.
Prefer the Nike Jumpman line (Jordan) vs the Nike Swoosh but it is what it is.
The BSN part of the deal has me puzzled. What is their role? Who designs the unis? Why do we have to go thru them? Do they also pay us?
Ugh. More money for Phil Knight to funnel to UofO.
That's not how sponsorships work - we're taking Nike's money!
Are you saying Cal athletics wearing Nike apparel will have such a marketing impact that Nike's stock will rise?
They’re paying us. And our apparel sales won’t even be enough to notice for him.
Sure, Nike is paying Cal, but they're not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. The article doesn't say how much they're paying Cal -- hopefully more than what UA was paying -- but if Nike doesn't think they'll make that money back (and more) from sales of ridiculously overpriced Nike/Cal merch, then Nike's shareholders would have a righteous claim against the company.
Great. We get to keep subsidizing Phil Knight, Stanfurd and the Ducks. He has given over $500 million to their business school. I hope he can find it in his wealthy heart to send some moola our way as well.
Phil Knight is giving us all the money and apparel and equipment. That's really generous of him.
That is literally how these contracts work.
The sponsor pays the school an annual fee to for the exclusive right to license their brand and provides equipment, apparel, etc to the teams.
I believe the UA deal paid us $8.5m per year before it blew up.
Edit: ahh my bad, thought you were responding to my comment below. Will leave this up in shame.
You aware that the apparel sponsor pays the school?
Any word on the value of the contract?
Something tells me its going to be embarrassing.
Half the proceeds of Phil Knight's OnlyFans.
Cal pays half the NIL value from Calegends
The Nike unis before weren't incredible but I do dig those shoes.
I'm curious about the "lower body injuries" that so many Cal players seemed to suffer from in recent years...could that somehow been shoe-related to UA's equipment, or is better to maybe point the finger at the choice of turf currently used in the stadium?
No, it’s just a bad s&c program.
Hopefully they can find a sponsor for the field. The last guy who did was a scam artist and a thief.
I want a whole stadium not just the field sponsorship.
The Beastmode Stadium of Berkeley.
When I divest from my 401M (MegaMillions), I'll sponsor it.
What do you expect from mobile gaming? I have a time share to sell anyone who trusts anyone out of mobile gaming.
That was one sponsor ago. (Kabam) Our most recent sponsor was FTX (Crypto trading platform. . . and giant fraud)
evil spawn of furd professors
Top Dog Field at Memorial Stadium
anything is better than Green Rectangular Patch Field
We should get Ortho to sponsor the field.
Let's crowdsource the $15million and call it WriteForCalifornia field!
Maybe Bancroft Clothing will stock Cal gear again? Nothing can be more depressing for an old Cal fan than walking into Bancroft Clothing these days. Once my Cal merchandise Mecca, there's is hardly a trace of Cal on the shelves now.
Is that UA related? I love that place......
Nah. More a result of the pandemic's effect on retail and foot traffic (no students or games for a long while), and declining interest in the Cal brand. They almost halved the store space in the past year or two, and got rid of that one wing with all the Cal gear and now seem to almost exclusively sell 501s and stock sweatshirts and tees.
Confused about the BSN Sports part. It almost feels like we're just getting nike stuff from them vs being an actual nike school. But maybe that's just how this works?
I don't know anything about BSN but Marvin Jones created a brand called BZN. I wonder if he still makes them.
https://twitter.com/bznapparel
BSN works with A LOT of Nikes smaller clients. As a distribution company they try to leverage being the place to buy logo gear for schools that don't have a great distribution system of their own. I think they also add value with design, but I'm not clear on that. Search on NIKE and BSN and you'll see lots of really third tier schools, even conferences, listed. It probably is a good thing, but feels like a real step down in prestige and might mean very little value actually compared to what we saw with UA...
IMO it’s a good starting point. Probably at an inflection point in Cal football and this is in the right direction.
Maybe we can #EarnIt and go back to Jordan and real Nike
Fingers crossed this is just a quick step up from the radioactive crater that was UA uni contract and FTX naming happening together. I know a lot of supposedly smart people took FTX money, and who could have guessed that the money race Adidas/Nike/UA/Joe's Shoe Palace would eventually kill one of the players... but I would think even Crist would be breathing down Knowlton's neck for this kind of business failure.
UA wanted out, but it was serious money (hence they wanted out). What we have now via this BSN company appears to be a total joke. I guess we'll find out when the details come out, but this looks like some kind of FCS or D2 level contract.
I'm not totally sure the stadium naming rights are brokered by the athletic department actually.
Correct, stadium name rights come from Learfield, Cal's third party advertising wing.
I think I remember that Learfield brokered the deal. They agreed to be paid in crypto and pass the cash to CAL (or something like that?). This sounds like they had full control and CAL didn't get to approve the name...? I can believe it but ... wow ... even if you just mean that someone outside the athletic dept approved it then that's still kinda wow. Immodium AD field. Come play for CAL and you won't crap on the field! That would sound great to HS kids...
Yeah, I went to BSN's site and thought aw shit this looks like something high schools and little leagues use to buy stuff a la carte. Is Knowlton just shopping online now for our uniforms and equipment but pretending we're getting them for free to save face?
If he was going to do something like this, he likely missed an opportunity to have Marshawn Lynch's BeastMode handle things rather than a third party that looks like the place where I order my elementary school's gear...
This is what I thought when I read it.
Having always been an Adidas wearer, I noticed this year a lot of the premier teams rocking Adidas, which surprised me. Maybe this stuff just goes in cycles. But glad to see this locked down regardless.
I always was a Nike shoe guy. For basketball shoes and cross trainers, they were always the most comfortable. Until my son got me to buy a pair of Ultraboosts. They are so comfortable. I'll keep buying Nike basketball shoes but I'm a convert to Ultraboosts.
Adidas makes great bball shoes for fit, performance and value, but I've never liked any of their designs. Since I'm a total poseur, I almost exclusively buy Nikes.
Nike started becoming too narrow for me in the mid-2000's Cant tell if my feet continued to grow wide, or if they started making them more narrow. Granted I usually buy the 4E wide version of shoes, but I can more or less fit into most other brands if not a little uncomfortably, while Nike without exception is always too narrow compared to the others.
(similarly, I think their clothing fits like 2 sizes smaller than everyone else!)
Nike's shirt sizing is inconsistent between its own products, let alone other brands. I usually order two sizes and keep the one that fits better. So I have some L and some XL.
The shoes can be inconsistent too but not nearly as often as the clothes.
egads, imagine if they just broke back out the cartoonish Berenstain Bears looking jerseys/bear logo from the Dykes era?
those big game edition UA unis were hot, and I was hoping we'd get something like that as more regular alternates.
hopefully we get something simple and sleek. and say adios to the "sather stripes"
Wilder: I'm with you. The Under Armour swag and unis looked good. Distinctive as well.
I'm guessing we lost our Jordan brand ties though.
We don't deserve it
Who cares if we deserve it? I still want it back, lol.