Under Armour

[Lobot]

Justin Williams just tweeted an article from Ben Bolch, the UCLA beat writer. Bolch is reporting that UA is trying terminate their apparel contract with UCLA. UCLA ‘s AD is not happy about it. They have a much larger contract than we do and that’s a Big chunk of money to lose.

Justin notes that UA just signed an extension with Texas Tech.

I have no idea what this might mean for UC If anything, but I think unless the money is fantastic, there would be no reason to keep them if we find ourselves in the same boat. Tuberville walked us into that contract, which was probably one of the few good things he did. He’s also long gone so If we have change suppliers, I hope The Jumpman makes a return to Clifton.

UA has been having issues for a while now.

[swilsonsp4]

Here's the Bolch article from the LA Times:

https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/story/2020-06-27/

[Lobot]

Thank you. They’ve now removed UCLA, Cal and Auburn from their available merchandise on their site.

[swilsonsp4]

It would be interesting to see UA's data on which schools had the lowest merchandise sales. Perhaps the fans of UCLA, Cal & Auburn weren't buying the products in sufficient quantities.

[Lobot]

It would be interesting to see UA's data on which schools had the lowest merchandise sales. Perhaps the fans of UCLA, Cal & Auburn weren't buying the products in sufficient quantities.

What product? That's the biggest issue with UA to a lot of our fans. At least in UC's case, they don't produce enough products for fans to buy. What they do have is overpriced and only availbale through UC or Fanatics. If you go out and look at the shop at GoBearcats, there's one page of UA gear right now and most of it is almost out of stock. There used to be more stuff out there but it's almost like UA has stopped trying at this point. It's kind of a shame because the quailty of the merchandise is pretty good aside from the C-Paw logos that like to peel off.

[Lobot]

I don't think that Cal has figured what is going on yet. They put out a statement saying they were committed to the deal after their gear was removed from the UA SIte. This came after Dennis Dodd at CBS noticed a day later than /RedditCFB did that it had been removed.

https://www.californiagoldenblogs.co...rs-ucla-bruins

[Lobot]

What product? That's the biggest issue with UA to a lot of our fans. At least in UC's case, they don't produce enough products for fans to buy. What they do have is overpriced and only availbale through UC or Fanatics. If you go out and look at the shop at GoBearcats, there's one page of UA gear right now and most of it is almost out of stock. There used to be more stuff out there but it's almost like UA has stopped trying at this point. It's kind of a shame because the quailty of the merchandise is pretty good aside from the C-Paw logos that like to peel off.

More importantly Just looked at the Fanatics store for UC and there's no entry for UC on the main NCAA menu. You have to do a manual search to find it. Minimal
UA gear on the site.

UA's own site has 17 items for us.

[GoBearcats31]

Didn't realize Temple signed a Nike deal (starting in July): https://owlsports.com/news/2020/4/8/...with-nike.aspx

[GoBearcats31]

Thank you. They’ve now removed UCLA, Cal and Auburn from their available merchandise on their site.

I still see Auburn.

Funny thing is when you visit this page, the only two schools are UCLA and Cal: https://www.underarmour.com/en-us/ua-collegiate

[Lobot]

Looks looks BC and South Carolina have gone to UA and are looking to get out or renegotiate.

https://www.ft.com/content/52d24220-...e-4d43c7871f14

[Lobot]

I also just saw a prominent legal account on Twitter suggest that bankruptcy might not be out of the question for Under Armour. I think that would probably allow Plank to buy the assets and take it private again. If no one at UC is talking to them, they need to be at this point.

[Lobot]

I had forgotten that UA was under federal investigation for shady accounting practices from 2019. Puzzle makes more sense when you throw that in.

[GoBearcats31]

Interesting story with a legal angle on things related to UCLA (and the other UA schools) https://www.sportico.com/2020/busine...la-1234608270/

[Lobot]

BC is talking to UA about their deal. Not sure to what end though.

https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/06...ting-contract/

[Lobot]

Under Armour and Kevin Plank got a warning salvo from the Securities and Exchange Commission this morning about their accounting practices. UA may have to pay civil penalties if a case is filed. Either way, Something is not right here.