Nike takes over British Athletic contract from adidas, from SGI, note by Larry Eder

Mo Farah, Galen Rupp, London 2012,

RunblogRun notes: Puma had offered more for Arsenal than Nike would pay. Perhaps Nike UK looking for assets.

Neils de Vos, CEO of British Athletics, as is noted in official press release, did the deal. In effect, De Vos shopped British Athletics around, while speaking to adidas. That is what CEOs do.

A lawsuit ensued between adidas and British athletics. adidas thought that they had an agreement in the works with British Athletics. De Vos did not believe that to be the case. To consternation of adidas, court sided with British Athletics.

While British athletics will be in Nike kit for world champs, international matches as well, adidas still had all British sport Olympic kit.

Fascinating battle in athletics does not even compare to money battles in football or soccer in the former colonies.

De Vos has done much change in British athletics. He dropped Fast Track, the long time contracted sponsorship team for then UK athletics, brought all meet direction in-house, let AVIVA contract expire, now move from adidas to Nike, and moved many successful people in British athletics out of their areas of influence, bringing in new blood.

Change is good, but change for changes sake is not.

Great managers know the difference.

Only time will tell in the case of British Athletics. In any case, de Vos is shaking things up in Birmingham, HQ of British Athletics.

In terms of Nike, they now have USA Track & Field, British Athletics, German and Russian Athletics federations, among many others. ASICS has France and Italy, PUMA has the Jamaican Athletics Federation, adidas has Ethiopia, among others, in terms of athletics kit federations. The IAAF, the governing body of the sport, is sponsored long term, by adidas.

Kit sponsorships are a huge battle in European football.

But the battles over kit, and medals for brands continue. In the most recent World Championships, Nike sponsored athletes, excluding relays, won 83 medals, up from 77 in 2011.

The battle goes on….

NIKE TAKES OVER BRITISH ATHLETIC CONTRACT FROM ADIDAS

Once again flexing its marketing muscle when it comes to marketing assets, Nike has signed a new deal with the governing body of U.K. track and field that runs for seven years and is worth a reported $23 million.

#britishathletics, #nike, #puma, #adidas

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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