Bye Bye Adidas?

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mowgli

mowgli

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2013
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Looks like we are about to sign a new deal with US kit supplier Under Armour who currently supply Spuds. Nice kit although the skin fit is going to be an interesting image on some of our supporters!! Not clear how close we are to a deal or when from. The thing that surprised was how much we are getting from Adidas at the moment. $7.6m per year? That seems a pretty good deal so Under Armour will have to amazing.

http://www.soccerwire.com/blog-post...deal-with-under-armour-as-u-s-presence-grows/
 
Says the Tottenham contract was $76m for ten years back in 2012. So on that basis you would expect us to be bettering the Adidas contract.

Sounds like it's a positive move financially and having a kit designer not associated with lots of teams should mean we're not lumbered with a template design.
 
saintlyhero said:
Says the Tottenham contract was $76m for ten years back in 2012. So on that basis you would expect us to be bettering the Adidas contract.

Sounds like it's a positive move financially and having a kit designer not associated with lots of teams should mean we're not lumbered with a template design.
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Yes. Good news on both fronts. And they do specific fit for women which should go down well. I know some people mocked the question at the forum about catering for women but clearly Ralph took it seriously and alluded to the fact that something was about to happen to address that.
 
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Yes, the supplier is changing. Under Armour have been lined up for some time now (think I may have mentioned it on here, but not 100%) and should give those of our fans who want something more 'bespoke' what they're looking for.

Their training wear is usually pretty good too. I wouldn't worry about sizings, they don't try and squeeze fans into the shirts for the athletes. UA also provide women's fits, which is another positive.

I look forward to seeing what they come up with. As much as I like Adidas training wear, I've not been too impressed by any of the kits.
 
- Doing The Lambert Walk said:
Yes, the supplier is changing. Under Armour have been lined up for some time now (think I may have mentioned it on here, but not 100%) and should give those of our fans who want something more 'bespoke' what they're looking for.

Their training wear is usually pretty good too. I wouldn't worry about sizings, they don't try and squeeze fans into the shirts for the athletes. UA also provide women's fits, which is another positive.

I look forward to seeing what they come up with. As much as I like Adidas training wear, I've not been too impressed by any of the kits.
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I think, with the percentage of grossly overweight Americans as an example, they should be fairly understanding. I've never been a fan of the tent shirt, in any case. In the early 2000s Saints had enough material in their shirts for two players. In a stiff breeze they took all the pace out of players. It made great looking kits look the poorer, and poor looking kits look totally duff.

And I haven't been too impressed with the recent Adidas kit looks either. The latest Home and Away kits are OK though. The hanky sleeves home shirt was appallingly bad. It actually spoils replays of good games from that season.
 
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TheSecondStain said:
In the early 2000s Saints had enough material in their shirts for two players. In a stiff breeze they took all the pace out of players. It made great looking kits look the poorer, and poor looking kits look totally duff.
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I've got a beige? pony shirt from the late 90s with Sanderson on it that would put a boat's sail to shame as it slows me down (or speeds me up) in any amount of wind. I am quite skinny and in the nineties baggy was in so it suited back then.

These days I like a much more fitted shape which Umbro were good at and the in house one fits well but the Adidas ones are just straight up straight down affairs which I don't like.

Looking forward to 'snazzy stripes' next season and hope the away kit is as classy as the majority of recent attempts (namely the yellow umbro, the blue Muvi and the Green Muvi)
 
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Under Armour, eh? That's interesting.

The article doesn't quite connect the dots as completely as they could for some reason, maybe because it's just sticking with known facts.

But it notes that Under Armour is based in Baltimore, and that Saints are starting a soccer academy in Baltimore. But what it doesn't say is that many the various elite youth soccer clubs from different age groups all joined together to form a sort of affiliation/superclub, where they all train in the same facility and move from club to club as they age and progress. This is a general movement in the US. They also just did the same thing in my city where they united the two elite youth clubs under one umbrella.

The Baltimore superclub, like the one in my city will be designated an official US Soccer Development Academy which okay, it's just US Soccer admittedly but it is kind of the equivalent of a category 1 EPPP ranking (that Southampton has). It's supposed to provide a pipeline to the US Men's team. The various USDA clubs play against each other in a 10 month season and at the end I believe there is some kind of championship.

So if Southampton is involved, its a bit more than just running a few soccer camps and letting some youth teams wear red and white. Arsenal for example, is heavily involved with a USDA setup in Washington. They're even called Arsenal FC. So this could be the same thing. If so, I'd consider it kind of a coup.

Another tidbit that isn't really a secret but has been speculated upon. Nike has a partnership arrangement with IMG Academy. IMG was the original Bolletieri Academy for tennis that produced all sorts of stars-- Aaron Krickstein first (remember him?), but then Agassi, and many others. It also expanded into golf, basketball, baseball and football. So many of the top athletes in the US and the world all went through there.

It's said that Under Armour wants to do the same thing (and my semi-ITK friends all indicate they think this is true). Like Nike and everyone else, they sponsor camps and teams all over the country, but the rumor is they will be be establishing some sort of megacomplexacademy for the elite of the elite in Baltimore so when these athletes get famous, they'll already be signed to (or at least Under Armour will have a big leg up on signing them) Under Armour. So maybe that happens and Saints can get in on some of that action as well.
 
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Great post ISIRTP

This is the official website of the US development academy: http://www.ussoccer.com/development-academy

They're expanding to U-12 from next year and currently go up to U-23 level in the Mens and Womens games.

When Ralph spoke about Southamptons involvement he mentioned we would be reaching nearly 100,000 kids. Which suggests more than taking over an academy or two. Sounds like we're setting up a curriculum
 
I think it may be a scheme where we train coaches in our system and they take it back to their Academies. It means we will gain an income, but more importantly raise our profile. We could do this without getting involved with actually running academies....perhaps this may also explain our link with Under Armour who are interested in running academies. Imagine how famous we could become in the US if thousands of kids see and hear our name every time they go into training. Inspired.
 
fran-MLs little camera said:
I think it may be a scheme where we train coaches in our system and they take it back to their Academies. It means we will gain an income, but more importantly raise our profile. We could do this without getting involved with actually running academies....perhaps this may also explain our link with Under Armour who are interested in running academies. Imagine how famous we could become in the US if thousands of kids see and hear our name every time they go into training. Inspired.
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As well as Arsenal having a US academy, it looks like Chelsea, Everton & Juventus have associated academies(or at least there in the name) and I expect other clubs around the world have close relationships.

I have this wonderful image of these academies being invested in by other clubs and in everyone they're opening up their Southampton football textbooks(Forwarded by Ward-Prowse)
 
- Doing The Lambert Walk said:
Yes, the supplier is changing. Under Armour have been lined up for some time now (think I may have mentioned it on here, but not 100%) and should give those of our fans who want something more 'bespoke' what they're looking for.

Their training wear is usually pretty good too. I wouldn't worry about sizings, they don't try and squeeze fans into the shirts for the athletes. UA also provide women's fits, which is another positive.

I look forward to seeing what they come up with. As much as I like Adidas training wear, I've not been too impressed by any of the kits.
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Expect to hear something official about this partnership at the back end of the coming week.
 
A bit of further detail on what I know...

- announcement on Thursday morning
- media conference at St. Mary's at 10am this coming Thursday with Ralph and the VP of Under Armour
- five-year initial partnership between SFC and UA
- £8m per season in terms of the kit deal alone (which is over double the Adidas deal, which was around £3.5m per season)
- Under Armour to assist Saints in the rolling out of Saints coaching methods with partner clubs in the USA, providing equipment etc.


More to come on that later in the week though!
 
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- Doing The Lambert Walk said:
A bit of further detail on what I know...

- announcement on Thursday morning
- media conference at St. Mary's at 10am this coming Thursday with Ralph and the VP of Under Armour
- five-year initial partnership between SFC and UA
- £8m per season in terms of the kit deal alone (which is over double the Adidas deal, which was around £3.5m per season)
- Under Armour to assist Saints in the rolling out of Saints coaching methods with partner clubs in the USA, providing equipment etc.


More to come on that later in the week though!
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Sounds promising this. Good job Ralph.
 
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