March 16, 2015, will go down as one of the most significant days in history with regards to the landscape of American professional sports uniforms.
Earlier today, Adidas announced that it would not seek to renew its contract as NBA uniform supplier when the existing deal expires at the end of the 2016-17 season. And in news from an even more influential North American sports league, Nike has quietly extended its exclusive on-field apparel contract with the NFL.
The deal, which is being reported by Sports Business Journal, adds three years to the five-year contract that began during the 2012 season, guaranteeing Nike-produced NFL uniforms and sideline apparel through the 2019 season.
The NFL, of course, is the most popular sports league in America, so the contract to outfit the league’s players can be seen as one of the most valuable assets in the entire sports business world. Under Armour was among the companies that was expected to bid for the contract had it come available in 2016, and it could even been speculated that Adidas’s move away from the NBA uniforms contract was in anticipation of making a run at the NFL deal. Nike’s original NFL contract would have expired around the same time that Adidas’s NBA deal is concluding.