Official Jordans News

Sunday 03 July, 2011

Thanks to Marcus Jordan, did Nike just steal UCF from Adidas

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Adidas, none too pleased at this development, summarily canceled its deal with Central Florida.And being Michael Jordan's son, it seems likely that Nike would be willing to swoop right in and take over UCF's sponsorship, especially since Michael Jordan Shoes son is now on the team.Last night, Jordan took to the floor in his father's brand anyway.What athletics budget can afford to drop $9 million in sponsor money?Weird, right?This is not as disastrous as it might sound, because, duh, Marcus Jordan is Michael Jordan's son.It is a big interesting from a purely marketing perspective, though.

You could even go one step further and speculate that UCF knew, whether intuitively or through conversations with Nike, that if Marcus Jordan refused to dress in adidas, Nike would come riding in.And yet the school was all-too-willing to let Jordan walk right out onto the court last night in his father's shoes.

Not even elite programs can manage that; UCF certainly can't.By now, we're all familiar with Michael Jordan's son Marcus, and Marcus's shoe-related issues at UCF.No big deal.If Jordan wore Jordans, UCF would violate their agreement and jeopardize a $9 million deal with the German shoemaker.It makes sense.Marcus Jordan's feet won't touch adidas!The only problem: UCF is an adidas school, and adidas schools only wear adidas, just as Nike schools only wear Nike.I think we've covered this before.According to Jordan, UCF told him during his recruitment that he'd be allowed to wear his father's Air Jordan brand.Sports By Brooks's Brooks Melchior has already talked to two "prominent sports marketing execs" who say the wheels on a Nike partnership are already turning.Nike gets to be the hero; adidas looks like a petulant corporate overlord; and Jordan Brand gets a momentary boost in profile, the sort of old-school brand-loyalty marketing gimmick -- Mickey Mantle prefers Viceroy!

News for Friday 01 July, 2011