WKU Partnership With Nike Now Official — Stray Thoughts
Yesterday, one of our new contributors, Ross Shircliffe, wrote some awesome thoughts about the, now official, WKU/Nike five-year…
Yesterday, one of our new contributors, Ross Shircliffe, wrote some awesome thoughts about the, now official, WKU/Nike five-year partnership to supply the Tops with athletic apparel.
The full release was short and brief, and can be seen below:
WKU Athletics has reached an agreement with Nike to serve as the department’s official apparel provider beginning on July 1, 2017, Director of Athletics Todd Stewart announced today. Beginning with the 2017–18 season, Nike will be the official apparel and shoe provider for each of WKU’s 16 athletic teams.
“All of our sport programs and student-athletes will benefit from the relationship with Nike,” Stewart said. “We are very excited to partner with the leading and most recognizable brand in athletics.”
A full uniform reveal will occur this summer.
So, in other words, “Yes, the rumors are true. We are going to wear Nike’s logo on our uniforms for five years.”
Awesome! Neato! Cool beans! Other exclamations!
However, with such a short official announcement, there’s not much to really react to. So, to a sports blogger, that means SPECULATION TIME!
My immediate reaction is this — this is a move to help further Rick Stansbury’s quest to put the Tops a national power and name. With that, my assumption is a ton of focus will be put on upgrading the basketball uniforms above all other sports.
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Will we get “WKU” across the chest, LSU style? Or are we gonna get the MTSU treatment with “Western” above the number and “Kentucky” below it? (Personally, I would love this. It’s the classic look and, while the school wants “WKU” everywhere and anywhere, the fans love the Western Kentucky. Throw us a bone.) Also, if Nike wanted to do some sort of alternate uni that looked like this, but with Big Red above the number, you wont hear me complaining.
Also, I think it’s safe to assume for at least football and basketball, we are going to see three options — red, black and white. Maybe they’ll mix and match, but those three are for sure going to exist.
I’m not quite sure what they’ll do with the football uniforms, if anything. I hope they don’t go G5 cookie cutter (especially since I hate the different colors on the sleeves), and the new uniforms Russell unveiled last year already kind of a Nike look to them. So, who knows.
Also, will Nike supply the game-hats for the baseball team? Some schools do things weirdly. LSU has Nike hats, but MTSU dawns New Era lids. Will the Tops continue to rock The Game hats or change it up?
My final thought is this — a five-year deal? I’m assuming that’s just Nike putting its foot into the water to see if this will be a profitable deal for them, and it’s just long enough for the entire tenure of one Mitchell Robinson. If the deal is a success, in Nike’s eye, will they renew for longer? If they don’t is WKU back to a uniform-supplier laughing stock? I just…don’t like that the initial deal is so short, but you never know when it might get extended.
What are your initial thoughts/impressions about the Tops deal with Nike? Let us know in a comment below, or on twitter @TheTowelRackWKU.