By Jonathan Sawyer
Sports Editor
Last year, the entire St. Bonaventure University athletic program made the switch to Adidas after not having a set brand for campus sports. The university’s athletic director, Tim Kenney, said the athletic department went out and talked to a group of candidates to sponsor the school.
“The interesting thing, there was not a department deal in place here. What the all department deal does, increases your buying power, put you with co-branding with a major company, which is good for image,” said Kenney. “We talked to the big three [Under Armour, Nike and Adidas] and Adidas came out to be the best fit for us.”
An all department deal means every team will wear the Adidas brand. Kenney said Adidas had no part in changing the colors, that, “we are brown and white.”
Kenney said he credits the women’s basketball team for the idea that sparked the color change.
“It was interesting it was the women’s basketball uniforms to start getting us thinking this way,” said Kenney. “They had the brown, silver, grey and white and they looked really sharp and it looked good how do you get back to your base.”
He also mentioned it was tough to match each gold.
“The gold is tough, some of it is dark gold, some of its light gold, there’s no real consistency across the board, which goes back to dealing with one company at least we know we have color consistency with that.” said Kenney.
Kenney said Adidas helped the university out with taking the yellow out of uniforms.
“When we were looking at it, let’s see if we can take the yellow out for what we are doing, with staying with the brown, white and silver,” said Kenney. “Adidas helped us with the logo and it worked out perfectly, didn’t have to do much of a change to it.”
Kenney said he has gotten all positive responses from coaches and players.
“We knew there would be growing pains getting everybody on the same page because it is a different ordering system. We deal directly with Adidas now,” said Kenney. “Where in the past we would have to go through a middle man, that changes but overall I have heard nothing but positives.”
Adidas shocked many athletes who normally wear other brands when they received their gear.
“I hear athletes come in here wearing Nike, saying this [Adidas] stuff is awesome,” said Kenney. “We aren’t going to put you [athletes] in bad stuff and the way Adidas is changing, the way they do stuff made it a good fit for us.”
Getting a leg up on other schools by wearing Adidas is another factor in going with their brand.
“They [players] have been able to get stuff that they didn’t have, that their peers, even within the conference never had,” said Kenney. “That is going help with attracting more student athletes to come to school here.”
Kenney said they will still keep going to their local vendors.
“We will still use our vendors locally, like Sports Locker for embroidery, so we aren’t taking true business away from them,” said Kenney. “We will still get stuff blank from Adidas and then just bring it over there to get embroidered.”
The Bob Lanier Court went under construction to change the court and score board this past summer to the colors currently of the school, but the turf’s logo will remain the same for right now, said Kenney.
The Bonnies will have a long-term partnership with Adidas, Kenney said.
sawyerjp15@bonaventure.edu
