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Post by morris on Jun 15, 2016 11:07:28 GMT -6
Anyone have any experience with being a branded program? We talked to an Adidas rep today about it. All our athletic programs would have to sign on. I'm wondering if anyone has experience with the process. Pros and Cons. Any experience with the other large brands?
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Post by fcboiler87 on Jun 15, 2016 13:35:22 GMT -6
A school I was at early in my career did. We went all Nike. I think it gave us better deals on the cost of everything. I don't remember any specific drawbacks but I was just a lowly assistant. I guess the only thing I can think of would be cost. All the stuff you order for your kids is supposed to be that brand and if you want to get a lot of stuff it will cost them or you more. Although now that I think about it some of the stuff we ordered just for reward type stuff wasn't Nike. All I know is I've never had more gear than when I was there. Seemed like a good all around deal to me.
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Post by **** on Jun 15, 2016 14:29:14 GMT -6
My current school is all UA. Signed last year and things have been good.
We get new jerseys every two years in all sports. The kids get the opportunity to buy gloves, cleats, shoes, etc at a discounted price. Anyone on staff in the district also has a log in to buy generic under armour shirts, pants, shoes, etc for 25% off.
I really can't think of any cons. We still will do some generic T shirts through 'sport decals' or whoever we get flyers from sometimes if they are crazy cheap. We did our middle school camp ones through them and they were like $3 a shirt I believe?
All our kids gear doesn't have to be UA either. If a kid wants to go to Dicks and buy Nike cleats then so be it, but the deal we get with UA will be cheaper than the store. We're looking at buying new girdles and they're just going to be generic Russel ones too; doesn't have to be UA.
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Post by bigmoot on Jun 15, 2016 15:40:00 GMT -6
What does the corp require of you if you sign on. How do you approach them to sign on?
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Post by coachdubyah on Jun 16, 2016 13:10:52 GMT -6
The last time I was at a place that wanted to do this it required every sport to utilize the product. We tried to go Nike, but the only way to get the deal as good as it could be was every HC at the school had to agree on it. Problems were Soccer and Softball. Soccer had a deal with Addidas (obviously) and Softball was Mizuno. So we couldn't get the best deal...I forget specifics but the coaching gear would have been awesome to have. Deal never went thru. We ended up Nike but not near as much gear for coaches.
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Post by bigmoot on Jun 16, 2016 13:18:35 GMT -6
Are you require to buy $X.XX of stuff per year. We are a small school with a smaller budget.
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Post by morris on Jun 16, 2016 17:25:34 GMT -6
You do have to get every HC to sign on but your AD me get have a hand in it. My next question is does anyone know how to talk to Nike or UA about this? I'd like to compare deals between the companies.
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Coach Hoover
Sophomore Member
Assistant Coach, Ligonier Valley High School
Posts: 104 
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Post by Coach Hoover on Jun 17, 2016 16:34:01 GMT -6
I facilitate Nike & UA deals as part of my full-time job. Most are through sporting goods dealers, like the one I work for, and unless you are a major high school program, you are not going through Nike directly; UA & Adidas may work with you, but they will often introduce you to a dealer to service you.
Programs vary; some are "all-in", some are "preferred dealer" with a dealer that allows the school to mix & match brands per sport. It basically comes down to this: the more you plan to spend, the bigger the discount, and the more you get in free gear each year. Typically that comes in free product from the dealer, sometimes it comes in free product directly from the brand.
For most coaches & AD's, these deals are great, because you end up doing most of your ordering through one place, which means one rep, one system, one set of expectations, one easy-to-calculate pricing structure, and focused service.
If I were hired as an AD, I'd be looking for one of these on Day 1, not just to "brand" my school, but to make my & my coaches lives easier when it comes to ordering. And everyone loves giving & getting free stuff, so yeah, go for it. Most deals do not care if you go and buy cheap Gildan tees for a camp or the team from your local printer, but you better not be coaching on Friday night in a UA jacket if you're a Nike team. Unless your school supplies footwear and requires athletes wear it, they can still wear whatever they want if they want to pay more at the store.
One thing of note - just because you are in a contract or are dealing with a dealer or brand directly, doesn't mean you have access to every colorway in every product whenever you want it, or that you can get the same stuff that Oregon gets; there's a lot of things high schools and smaller college programs just don't have access to, and there are certain products - like all of the NFL colorways of cleats - that you can't get, depending on who you are dealing with. Ditto on the designs you see in stores - just because you're a "Nike" school and you see that Texas t-shirt with the design you love and want to use it for your school, doesn't mean you can get it. Nike is very protective of their stuff, down to the t-shirt design templates, and there aren't many dealers at all that they let use them.
Do you research, shop around, and do what's best for your school. I'm a Nike guy, but I know that UA & Adidas are being very aggressive, and you have to have the right rep servicing you, so you just have to find the right fit.
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Post by unc31 on Jun 18, 2016 8:00:49 GMT -6
One school I was at we were a Nike school and it was great. We got lots of free stuff for the kids and coaches. The school I am at now we are a different brand.........really not of any benefit for us in my opinion.
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Post by morris on Jun 18, 2016 17:45:25 GMT -6
We had the Adidas guy kind of fall into our lap. How do you find the people to talk to from Nike and UA?
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Post by rwb32497 on Jun 18, 2016 20:57:56 GMT -6
Our football team is part of the Under Armour Undeniable program. Its pretty sweet. We get an allotment of gear for X amount of dollars. We use it for coaches gear, gloves, socks, cleats, etc. After that we get 40% off everything else. We let our kids order stuff at our cost. Our coaches and players are only allowed to wear Under Armour on game nights. Each time we win a state championship I believe we get a bonus on the allotment for the next season. I do not know all the details of the contract, but I do know we have to purchase new uniforms every other season.
Our rival school is part of the Nike Elite program. A friend of mine has told me a little about it. They have a similar set up that we do.
Both of these, (Undeniable and Elite programs) are somewhat of an invite type thing I believe.
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Post by dytmook on Jun 19, 2016 13:54:50 GMT -6
I think we have a gear deal that is primarily Nike, but the store they opened did have some cheaper brand options as we requested. Mostly because we do encourage the kids to buy a shirt or two and we do have some kids with limited means. last time we were "Nike" it was just football and I got two free shirts and a windbreaker. Nothing to sneeze at but not OMG great either. This year I think it will be the entire athletic department working through the rep so hopefully we score some more stuff too.
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Post by macdiiddy on Jun 25, 2016 20:21:32 GMT -6
For most coaches & AD's, these deals are great, because you end up doing most of your ordering through one place, which means one rep, one system, one set of expectations, one easy-to-calculate pricing structure, and focused service. This is actually one of the biggest draw back, our UA rep is terrible, but he is our guy. So I would suggest you ask around about the quality of service because you will end up working with one rep. |
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Post by runitupthemiddle on Jun 28, 2016 8:08:32 GMT -6
The last time I was at a place that wanted to do this it required every sport to utilize the product. We tried to go Nike, but the only way to get the deal as good as it could be was every HC at the school had to agree on it. Problems were Soccer and Softball. Soccer had a deal with Addidas (obviously) and Softball was Mizuno. So we couldn't get the best deal...I forget specifics but the coaching gear would have been awesome to have. Deal never went thru. We ended up Nike but not near as much gear for coaches. We just went with UA for football, huge discount on shoes and we get a nice discount on Anybkdy that orders in the school. Our kids do have to wear UA shoes, if not they r suppose to spat them. If the rest of the programs would jump on, we would get an even bigger discount. |
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klaby
Junior Member
Posts: 389
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Post by klaby on Jun 28, 2016 18:01:22 GMT -6
For apparel its good. For equipment its good you get good discounts on brand stuff. If you price it out you pay the same for off brand polos and other coach and warm up gear as you do if you go with a name brand dealer. Down fall is they change designs every couple of years, you have to get your orders in very early if you want it on time. Any changes to "stock" uniforms is very pricey. Lets say you decide to sign this year and you order new uniforms, this season you have say 4 get destroyed some how, bleach, rips whatever. If the uniform you choose was in its last year you are screwed, you cant replace those uniforms. If it was in year 1 or 2 your good. Like most schools you probably don't have the money to buy new game uniforms every 2-3 years...if you do good for you. But most don't, so if you spend 25-30K you need those to last. And probably you kick your old varsity uniforms to the JV right...so if you have 50 JV players but only 40 uniforms now what? I suggest you use name brand for apparel and equipment and a vendor like Ripon Athletic for uniforms, they never get rid of your uniform pattern, and here is a little info....they make most NFL and major college uniforms, and then stitch the Nike Logo on....yep its true....that way you can always replace the uniforms and add as needed with spending 20-30K for a whole team. Just my 2 cents...
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Post by cqmiller on Jun 29, 2016 10:23:29 GMT -6
When I was HC, we were an Under Armour program. EVERYTHING head-to-toe was under armour. All of our player gear, cleats, socks, I mean everything except helmets was UA. Got a great deal and was able to use the branding to get kids to fundraise more money and get more kids interested in the program.
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