The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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THE BUSINESS OF MICHIGAN ATHLETICS begin next August. Hackett assures he had plenty of help, and that while adidas and Un- der Armour put forth very attrac- tive offers, the swoosh won out for a number of reasons. "When we got to Nike, we dis- covered there was a lot of love and affection for the historical relation- ship by our fans and our players, and Nike," Hackett said. "Nike missed the Michigan connection. "The financials were fairly close. We decided it wasn't the richest of all three that had to win because it was close enough. We used other variables." Hackett then spoke directly to Michigan fans already anticipating the return to Nike. "The promise for you, for fans and people reading this, is that the uniform, which was all about fash- ion in some part of its life, moved to all about performance, in 'Just Do It,'" Hackett said. "Now, they're going to move to all about smart performance. "They're going to have capabili- ties in them that we never would have imagined, because of comput- ing and the movement called the Internet of Things. It's the idea that you can put technology inside of the fabrics, that we can read heart rates. "We can see positions on the field like they're microdots. All kinds of data analysis is going to be done. This isn't all next year, but Nike is further ahead than anybody in thinking about this." Highlights From Michigan's Nike Deal The Michigan athletic depart- ment had reason to trumpet its $169-million deal with Nike, set to go into effect in August of 2016. It's the most lucrative in college athletics, and Michi- gan released the following high- lights: • The contract runs from Aug. 1 to 2027, with Michigan having the option to extend to 2031. • The deal includes $12 mil- lion up front, $76.8 million in cash spread over annual pay- ments and $80.2 million in ap- parel for Michigan's athletic teams. • The agreement includes the use of Jordan Brand "Jumpman" apparel for men's and women's basketball, and as recently an- nounced, football as well. Royalty Revenue Holds Steady Michigan pulled in $6.3 mil- lion from sales of commercially licensed products. That repre- sented little change from the year before, which a Michigan spokesperson took as a sign of the Wolverines' strong athletic brand, due to several factors: a 5-7 football record, a coaching change, injuries to the basketball team causing a lack of postsea- son play, etc.