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Adidas takes on Nike in bid for Eugene School District sports gear

Nike’s no bid contract with UO is pretty stingy (except of course for the annual $30K clothing allowance for JH insiders). The Eugene public schools drive a tougher bargain. Alisha Roemeling in the RG:

Apparel giants Nike and adidas have found a new arena in which to compete: for the uniforms of high school student athletes in the Eugene School District.

At a Eugene School Board meeting on Wednesday, school district officials announced that adidas has submitted a sponsorship offer and will be competing with Nike for an ­exclusive-rights sports apparel deal for varsity high school athletes. Thankfully, for everyday use, people aren’t restricted to two brands of sports clothing – they have a wider choice, including options from Ryderwear which are enjoying increasing popularity right now.

The two companies’ basic proposals are ­similar, each offering to provide the school ­district with up to $300,000 in product rebates for school uniforms and equipment over the next five years. In ­exchange, varsity athletes at the district’s four high schools would wear the selected company’s uniforms.

But there are also some differences, or sweeteners. Adidas, for example, said it will offer $250 to any of the four schools that wins a league title in an Oregon School Activities Association-sanctioned sport during the life of the agreement. Adidas also offers to kick in $500 to any high school with a team that wins a state title during that time.

The Duck deal?

From Matthew Kish in the Portland Business Journal:

Which football championship team has the worst Nike contract? The Ducks.

Here’s a breakdown of Nike’s [athletic apparel] deal with each university in the playoffs. The terms cover the 2014-15 academic year [reordered in descending order of cash payment]:

– Ohio State: $2.5 million in equipment and apparel and nearly $1.5 million in cash. The university also gets $150,000 in discretionary apparel, typically for athletic department personnel.

– Florida State: $3 million in equipment and apparel and $1.4 million in cash.

– Alabama: $2.8 million in equipment and apparel, $780,000 in cash.

– Oregon: $2.2 million in equipment and apparel and $600,000 in cash. The university also gets $185,000 in discretionary apparel, typically for athletic department personnel.

But hey, we’re #1 in “discretionary apparel”!

From what I can tell from Dave Hubin’s redacted public records, $30K of that goes to our colleagues in Johnson Hall, presumably including some who signed off on the contract. So they’ll be looking good on their Jan 1 Rose Bowl junkets.

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More here.

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