Here's an interesting article noting the use of the beautiful and most glorious throwback uni's from our failed syracuse game.
From SportsLogos.net:
Link:. Cost of VT throwback uniforms.
Lots of interesting stuff, IMHO.
Another frustrating reference to our poor agreement and revenue stream:
The Hokies are in the midst of an eight-year deal with Nike originally signed in 2007 and extended in 2014, which includes roughly $2 million in cash and apparel to be spread out among their 22 varsity sports each year. It's considered one of the worst contracts – at least from the school's perspective – among all Power 5 programs.
Yikes. We suck. Can't this be remedied?
And, interesting to me, how VT had to ante up for the unis:
According to a report from The Roanoke Times, Virginia Tech was charged $16,140.02 for the 1999 throwbacks it wore in last month's loss to Syracuse.
NIKE won't even cop us a lousy sixteen grand?!
I'm sure there's more to it, but...
Note to Whit: maybe this is part of why we can't afford a buyout, or other nice things.
Comments
To my dying day I will die in the hill that as great as Weaver and Frank were for the football team they held back the athletic department overall by a lot of their choices in the 2010's.
I don't think anyone will fight you on this. Might be the coldest take in TKP history.
lol, right?
I don't always agree with Fireman, but I do here. And, as you point out, I'm not sure anybody disagrees...
Plenty of people out there still talk about "Beamer didn't need updated team rooms or locker room, Beamer didn't need more staff, the coaches who worked for Beamer didn't need bigger salaries"
Who thinks this way in 2021? What's 'plenty of people'? 5% of fans? Donors over the age of 60?
Recruiting and coaching searches aren't niche topics any more; they're covered by mainstream media now. If you consume college football content/media more than one day per week, I don't know how you believe that recruiting doesn't matter, or that you can land recruits without a staff, or you can get a decent coach for $2M/year.
Now - I do encounter VT fans who think the Athletic dept should 'borrow' money from main campus, or that VT 'isn't as poor' as others make us out to be - but that's a different topic.
NC state with thr fourth highest reported revenue in the conference.
2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022 & 2023 have entered the chat.
Yeah, "dominating" only to be steamrolled by any other Power 5 team
Not even a fraction of how much Swifford held us back with the shitty Raycom deal. Deserves jail for that nepotism.
Man, fuck Nike. The sooner we can void this bullshit contract, the better.
I mean honestly, this is fucking bullshit. We already have a shit deal with them, one of the worst in collegiate sports, where they are paying us one of the cheapest annual contracts of this industry, and on top of this, these fuckers are still charging us to do one off uniforms. That we have to order out of their fucking catalog?!?
Are you fucking kidding me?!?
I could tolerate a low ball offer if we were getting some nice kickbacks under the table and had them more willing to work with us for one off arrangements because we took a cheap offer from them. But to have a cheap offer AND STILL get fucked on the back end? What the absolute fuck.
And this was for just the jersey tops - we wore our standard helmets, pants, and everything else.
About 80% of my wardrobe is orange and maroon, but I don't think I'll buy another piece of Nike gear until we rectify this contract.
First of all, fuck Nike.
But if you look at it from an outside perspective, I'm not sure I blame them. Sure the nickel and diming seems dumb for $16k, but if I'm Nike I don't think I'd go out of my way to create and provide throwback uniforms based on the downward spiral of VT football.
At the end of the day its about selling merch. Release the one off, and then sell it on retail, and collect. In fact, for teams that suck with a fanbase that buys, that's probably one of the few ways you'll be able to see some revenue streams over the course of a season.
So to hear that Nike is having their cake and eating it too when it comes to our deal? Fuck them.
If we get fucked over again at our contact renewal/negotiation because of how bad our last 3 seasons have been, Fuente's ineptitude is going to fuck us for more years and millions of dollars well past his buyout.
Edit to say: At least we have CMY upping our profile from the other revenue sport so hopefully all won't be lost.
I wish. The Nike deal is particularly bad to our hoops teams even after the recent success. We've been recycling some of the same warm-ups in basketball for years now. Also, from a consumer side of things it is so, so bad. Typically Nike only provides us one design for a shirt and that shirt gets two color variants (maroon and grey) for the hoodie and ONLY ONE jersey to buy.
This year Nike has only provided the school with one long sleeve, one short sleeve, and one hoodie in only one color and no jersey at all to sell. West Virginia has way more 2021-2022 Nike hoops stuff to sell than we do.
All you really need to do to find out what Nike thinks of us in all sports is to go to Nike's website and search by colleges. They're only selling TWO VT items. They're selling eight items from....Spelman College Jaguars.
WVU has been better at basketball for a lot longer than VT. So you'd expect more basketball gear for them.
We had sold out games this year.
Plenty of people wearing VT apparel. So either a) VT produces engineers who are frugal and get a lot of years out of their gear (seems likely), or b) Nike doesn't put products out there that we buy (also likely) or c) Nike is taking advantage of us (absolutely).
I'd shop this mess around. I actually like Nike apparel, but our deal should at least match the other teams in the ACC. It's unacceptable that we don't at least have the deal UVa has.
In short, what does Virginia Tech look like?
b) for me, most years I dont like Nike's polo for us. So I dont buy it.
I have no idea the details. But to my layman eyes looking in, I see Weaver made a shit deal and Whit was dumb enough to extend it. Then we decided to do some throwbacks after our paltry Nike revenue was allocated to each respective sport and there was nothing left over.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't really follow how that's on Nike. Like jmecca said, they're not going to do us any favors. Especially, given the state of the program.
I just see us paying for our own boneheaded moves. ...for years.
I think it was said on another Nike deal thread that the extension had been negotiated by Weaver and for Whit to not sign it could have thrown VT into the financial uncertainty of not having an apparel deal at all while trying to negotiate a new deal with Nike holding even more of the cards.
Seems like an excuse tbh. I mean what are we gonna do, sign a bad Nike contract?
No...I remember reading the same thing and it seemed like the contract was put on Whit's desk as soon as he was hired.
I believe that's correct, but if that's the case he shouldn't have just signed it, he should have taken a moment to process it and renegotiate or at least explore his options and put it out to bid
Maybe it's time to start our own underwear company.
Come up with a clever name, make in comfortable enough, make it out of the same stuff everyone else uses.
But mostly, all of us buy and support it.
The uniform contract is something I'd have thought Whit would have fixed by now. When I see a stadium full of folks wearing Maroon and Orange, I figure somebody, somewhere is making some money. The least they could do is clothe the team in style.
I have always liked Adidas better, the only Nike stuff I own is because it is VT branded. I know people say that recruits find Nike preferable, but not sure they would turn down a winning program over the apparel. I guess what I am getting at is when this is all up, remember Nike bending us over, and take the best deal and raise the revenue of the department.
Every team I've seen wearing Adidas gear has very cheap looking jerseys.
Our current lame stripe jerseys legit look like some cheap Power Rangers uniform. They are awful. I'm sure Adidas could make something classic and solid like our '99 jerseys that would look sharp.
Agreed. I don't see what the big deal is with Nike. Our uniforms have been garbage for the past decade and it's a total low ball deal. Sign a deal with Adidas and I'm sure they can provide some very nice looking uniforms and a better deal than Nike.
I bet Puma would get us a better deal than Nike. I think they still make American football jerseys, but I rarely see it advertised.
I still have a hard time swallowing the prevailing narrative that Whit came in and essentially rubber stamped that deal. Seems like a major dick trip if true.
According to the Roanoke Times article, the agreement expires in 2022.
Seems to me that Nike should have paid the paltry sum for the throwbacks, as Virginia Tech should go into this next negotiation with a chip on their shoulder.
Should be on the list of things to resolve, after resolving the football coaching situation.
Whit is one of the greatest AD's in the land they say....
He didn't negotiate this deal. Weaver did. It's a contract.
True, but when this deal ends next year (when do negotiations start?) I'll be interested to see who/what/how much is the next deal.
Might help to have a new, exciting coach by then....
Hopefully they've been ongoing for some time now.
Yeah, those negotiations should looks something like this:
If he signed it, he's responsible for it. I just wonder if there were extenuating circumstances that forced his hand.
IIRC our jerseys for the following year were already made, and we would have had to pay Nike double for those plus new ones, or something like that. Something about timing. Whit even took a trip to Vietnam and China to check out the new uniforms.
I remember that. Nice pull. Still doesn't really explain/justify locking VT into a multi year deal that's objectively very inferior to its peers. Unless whit was completely bamboozled you have to wonder what else was going on to make those terms palatable. Nike's not VT's buddy and not in the business of rewarding loyalty as far as I can see.
Nike has company-friendly deals with most of their big clients. It's not uncommon for other fanbases to complain about their Nike deals. That's what happens when you are the big dog with the best brand.
I personally don't want UA for multiple reasons, most notably their financial questions and embarrassing deal back outs with UCLA and the MLB.
I would prefer to stay a Nike school with a better deal, but I wouldn't complain if we switched to Adidas or Jordan Brand (Nike subsidiary) if the deal was much bigger.
It's beyond time to cut ties with Nike. I've always thought Under Armour was more suited for our school and fan base. Way better looking clothing and uniforms.
Under Armour is severing contracts left and right. We need to stay away from them, they're probably less than 10 years from bankruptcy to be honest
I can't go along with Under Armour, as they subsidize Maryland via Kevin Plank, even as he supports their every wrong move (like moving to the Big 10 in search of bigger dollars).