New "Official Supplier" for MLS

Well technically, UnderArmour is a new official supplier.

 

That "What the Heck Will It Look Like" picture regarding next season's ball worries me a little. Maybe it'll be like that bowling ball with the skull in it.

 

So who is paying who in these deals?

Sachin

 

Unlike national or local TV, MLS actually takes in some nice coin from sponsorship.

Not as much as back in the day when they had the really big names (ATT, Mastercard etc), but still pretty good.

Andy

 

But are these really sponsorships? Or is MLS paying for uniforms, etc. from UA and PUMA? Or does MLS get stuff gratis and the vendor hopes to make money back on merchandise sales, brand awareness, etc?

Sachin

 

Team equipment is free. They make the money back on everything else. Brings up an interesting issue though.

Back when MLS started, a player in the lawsuit vs. MLS (Trittschue I think) had an endorsement deal with Diadora, or some Italian shoe corp. He was signed in MLS to a Reebok team, and he had to give up an Italian shoe deal because Reebok didn't want him wearing their shoes. A LOT of MLS players are wearing Puma shoes. This is only fair, because Puma are the best soccer shoes on the market.

But with Puma back in the league, will Nike and Adidas tell players on THEIR teams to trade in their Puma's, because now Puma is back in the league and "we don't want the competition?" As far as I know Atletica does not do shoes, so Rapids and Burn fans need not worry.

Fire fans are lucky. Puma's a good company and I think they will like their stuff.

 

Game Ball/ Golf Ball

I wonder if the new MLS offical game ball will be the puma cellorator shudoh soccer ball they developed that's dimpled like a golf ball.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,263640,00.html

http://www.pumasoccer.com/products/product.asp?prod=103

 

Re: Game Ball/ Golf Ball

it most likley will be.

 

(why do i always feel so negative when i post)

i just went to underarmor's web site to check out their excitement level on the new deal with mls

so mention of it anywhere

ok thats fine, its new

then i go to the section where you can check out all of their gear listed by sport

no mention of soccer gear

at least they could have put up a "coming soon" sign or something that even hints they are fired up about this new deal

oh well, just thought someone besides us geeks would be getting excited about soccer, but i guess not

 

First of all, you're using opinion as fact. Puma is only a good shoe for people who are comfortable in them, just like any other company.

Second, players for a long time have just cut the logos off shoes to get around this. At UVA Kyle Martino would paint white stripes on his Nike Zoom Internationals so they looked like Adidas shoes from the stands. Look at close ups of the players in action...you'll often see players in Copa Mundials that have had the stripes cut off and the white spot on the heel colored over with marker.

I don't know about the Nike teams, but Adidas had no problem with Conteh wearing Pumas, or a good number of other DC players (Convey, Quaranta, Olsen, etc.) wearing Nikes. Brian Kamler wore Diadora for awhile, and no one bothered him. I think Trittschuh just needed something to give the lawsuit a little more strength.

 

i remember leonel alvarez giving a friend of mine a pair of his atletica boots, which i dould not find in eurosport. so they do make them

 

are they supposed to be making jerseys or what? my younger brother swears by the underarmour stuff for UNDER his jersey. he wears one when its too hot and one when its too cold. i dunno ive never used the stuff but most people like it

 

Man, take it easy. it was a joke, ok?

And I learned this information about sponsorship from the court transcript. So while I know you are right that players do that stuff all the time, the endorsement issue is also germane.

 

Re: Game Ball/ Golf Ball

To quote Homer Simpson, "A HUNDRED DOLLARS??!!"

I can't pay that much for a ball. Maybe there will be a replica for sale like the Kappa ball. You could really kick the heck out of that Kappa ball, I was a fan of that one, except for the ugley design. DMB said it was too heavy though, I think.

That Puma ad is really cool, a little better than the good Cobi Jones Kappa ball TV ad. But didn't the MLSnet article say that Lazio, the Scottish FA and others are already using it?

So the MLS 2003 ball will pprobably look like the balls they're using, duh. Can someone get a picture or something?

 

I wore underarmour all last season for my high school (american) football team...play in the pacific northwest so we had rain most of the season, the stuff is great, I even wore it when we had summer practices in 100 degree heat and everyone was making fun of me (making fun of the starting quarterback, they wern'et laughing when i was team MVP) cuz i was wearing "longsleeves" when it was hot out but it kept me cool...and when it was freezing i was warm, only me and three of my teammates wore it and i can honestly say we performed better than the rest of our guys, not only cuz of talent, but we were confertable while they were cold and complaining about the rain all game..

 

UnderArmour will not make jerseys, and I wouldn't be concerned about finding 'soccer gear' on their site as it's probably going to be the same as the football and baseball undershirts, essentially.

The PUMA ball will be the Shudoh, but the design on the ball will be chosen by a fan poll like the Kappa ball was in 2000. The design will almost assuredly be unique to the MLS (like said Kappa ball)