Maybe this is the wrong place to discuss his, but in this month's "4-4-2" there is an article on Beckham and the inevitable "Is he going to Real" question is mentioned. This is secondary to my complaint, though. In a sidebar, the Nike-manUre partnership is fleshed out a bit. Nike pays an ungodly sum of money over 13 years, and they handle all the merchandising. Everything. All manUre has to do is pick up the checks. Where all this fits in with Arsenal is the fact that all of us have complained about the new kit, and the fact that Arsenal gets short shrift from the powers that be at Nike. After reading the figures on the merchandising contract, I can't agree more. What bothers me is this: Should Beckham want to leave, it cost Nike untold millions of dollars in shirt sales alone, not to mention ancillary product sales of Nike-branded manUre merchandise, especially in Asia where Becks is seen as a God. Beckhams show contract is with addidas, as is Real Madrid's kit contract. The only tie Nike has to Beckham (outside of England appearances) is the fact that manUre is a "Nike Club". So it makes sense for Nike to entice manUre to not only keep Beckham, but to shore up their property (manUre) at all times. What bothers me is that Arsenal also use Nike, who have "made their bed" with the enemy, so to speak. Nike has a vested interest in manUre results, and thus would prefer manUre to be a better club than Arsenal. Where is the Arsenal logic in this? You get chummy with a company that has an interest in your bitter rivals' success? Seems to me that Arsenal need to go with another company, where they would be the "big fish in a small pond", rather than be beholden to Nike, who probably have a chart on their wall showing how much money they lose if manUre don't win the league. Just some incoherent rambling on my part....
Coach, I saw the story and thought the same thing you did. Trouble is, Nike are probably exactly right to put their eggs in the ManUre basket. They're huge, and we're minnows by comparison. We can't touch their worldwide popularity right now, and probably won't be able to for some time. I already said this in another thread - eff Nike. Dump 'em, let's align ourselves with a company that'll actually seem excited about the partnership.
I've always disliked Nike, even factoring out all the other reasons except their product is always lacking. Add to that all this stuff you guys mentioned and it adds up to a reluctance to purchase anything to do with Arsenal that also has to do with Nike. I've always hoped we'd go back to adidas, with whom AFC had a few cool years in the early to mid-90's. Plus the three stripes thing is just too damn cool for words. As a sidebar my reticence to support Nike is universal which is why I never got around to buying a United States shirt until late last year and even that was an old red away shirt from two years ago.
Full disclosure: After family, Nike is my favorite thing in the world. Fair points made by Coach and Dan. I still think we are better off with Nike. With very few exceptions the only time I see soccer portrayed outside of a game, Nike is usually involved. Yeah, adidas had that good footballitis ad and once in a while Puma will run something, but in general, especially in this country, if non-hardcore soccer people comment on soccer it's about a Nike ad. That being said, I have my questions about the front office at Arsenal FC. If I was them, I'd been banging on Nike's door every day asking what needed to happen for Arsenal gear to be in more stores and catalogs. I'd want my team and players in ads running 24/7 on Fox Sports World (ads costs about $400 bucks for 30 seconds, that's why we see the EnerX ad 50 times a day - and God, why would that guy touch that beast, let alone have sex with her just about every day?) At the end of the day, Nike wants to make money. (Gasp, you mean it's not about the love of the sport?) Arsenal need to do a better job of marketing their players and team. Thierry Henry was in the States this week. Did they make an effort to get any interviews for him? What did they do when the FA Cup trophy came here back in March? I could go on and on (so could many of you). Don't hate the playa, hate the game. Then change the game.
I think Arsenal should stick with Nike, as pointed out Nike wants money. They pay Man U tons because they bring in WAY more then Arseanl. If Arsenal went back to Addidas or to Umbro do you really think that would bring in more money? No way in my opinion. Nike has 100's of pro teams that it is affiliated with, however 3 of them are the ones they promote the most (the three teams are Man U, Arsenal and Barca.) Nike to me is a great sponsor to have on our side. They have tons of money and invest it where they see a retrun. The answer to get more money from Nike is to win and have high profile stars. I for one love the fact Arsenal are with Nike and hope they stay withe them for a long time.
Why are we bashing Nike about not promoting us like United. United were huge BEFORE they signed the contract with Nike. I don't think United became that big because of Umbro. The United front office did a good job of promoting themselves, Nike just decided to take the easy part and keep the ball rolling rather than having to start it.
Exactly, they where huge, so Nike gave them boatloads of cash. Arseanl is not so we don't get the same amount of cash. I think some key promorion opertunites are being passed up by the club that would really help improve the visabilty.
Before you guys go on a campaign to ditch Nike and go with adidas instead, just remember that adidas also has a deal with Real Madrid, the other huge club in the world, and that I'm sure they'd be willing to chip in a few million to help buy any stars that Real wants to get. adidas pulled that this year with the UCLA basketball coaching job, when they ponied up big bucks so the Bruins could sign Ben Howland away from Pitt, which is another adidas school. Sonny Vaccaro has no loyalties whatsoever and will go with whoever the hot ticket is. He'll be excited about a partnership with Arsenal just long enough to cut a check so Real can steal Patrick Vieira.
However, one point which seems to have been lost is that there are never any Nike support items (training gear, accessories, etc.) available other than when they are just released. Just look at arsenal.com shopping the last few months. Have you guys noticed, how many Manure nike items stores like soccer.com or even mom and pop stores like soccerplus.net have? However, I really do like the quality of the new nike jerseys over adidas.
I think one problem with Nike stuff for Arsenal is that the Arsenal.com store in general over the last few months has been having all kinds of issues the last few months weather it be moving or inventory or whatever. I do agree that Man U has more general items like t-shirts etc and that is one of the big complaint we have. But whose fault is this? Nike for not making the shirts? Or Arsenal for not ordering the shirts? I know for US based sports if Nike make it for one team they can make the exact same model for a differnt team. Just that item has to be able to sell. Not sure who to point the blame at here for a lack of Nike items. If Arsenal put on sale 10 differnt Nike t-shirts I am pretty sure I would buy at least 5 of them.
I think that some of my point was lost here. What I was trying to point out was that Arsenal has aligned themselves with a company who's interests financially conflict with Arsenal's competitive interests. Nike makes more money the better manUre does, therefore Nike will do whatever they have to do to insure that manUre is successful. I'm not mad at Nike, and I understand that manUre are huge. I don't begrudge the fact that Nike is in business to make money and manUre is in business to be the biggest, best club that they can. Arsenal also wants to be the biggest, best club, and that's great. What I was saying is that should Arsenal return to addidas, they would be the biggest addidas club in England. addidas would do better financially if Arsenal win multiple trophies, whereas with the current situation Nike is predisposed to support manUre when the chips are down and the profits need to be tallied. I like Nike. I always thought that they really promoted sport in general, not just soccer, or football, basketball, etc. Heck, Nike even has NASCAR drivers under sponsorship, so they are a "sports first" company. I just think Arsenal would be better off somewhere else.
So that means they are working to make sure Arsenal does not sell much merchendice? I don't agree. I also don't think they are working to make Man U a success, they are working to sell Man U stuff. Which what they are doing for Arsenal, working to sell as much merchendice as possible. I think Addias would be a horrible move for Arsenal. They lack the marketing power of Nike which would make it a backwards move.
Seeing that the morons that run Nike gaveLeBron James $90 million endorsement deal. Beckham should be worth double that.
I think the real question is not whether or not we should be with Nike, Adidas or A N Other, the real question is; are the marketing people and buyers at highbury good enough at their jobs to maximise the clubs position? I don't believe they are. When I look at the new logo, logo not crest, all I can think of is that Nike took a look at what they'd produced for Barca, did a quick rehash and ...'there you go gunners, a new image!" London is one of the business and financial capitals of the world. How hard can it be to be as slick off the field as we are on it?
Didn't ManUre switch to Nike after Arsenal? Anyone know how long the contract with Nike runs? I'm hoping the rumours are true that Nike will give us back the yellow aways! I don't care for the spiderman blue look.
Actually, Nike has a lot more money than adidas. I believe that came out recently in the business and media forum in thread discussing Nike, adidas and Bayern Munich. Adidas was forced to purchase 10% of Bayern to keep the sponsorship deal.
Well Massachusetts is New England....guess thats close to British. Hate to break it to you but Reebok is headquaterd in the US.
Not only that, re-upping with Bayern forced adidas to divert the part of their budget earmarked for expansion markets (Asia and N. America). Another sign of Nike's might is that even though adidas has had a close relationship with Lebron James, they conceded long ago that they would not be able to match whatever Nike was going to offer him.
I believe Reebok offered $75m, not quite Nike's $100m, but still a massive amount. There was no way adidas was going to be able to compete with either. And Nike would have come out looking good no matter who won the bidding war - for both Lebron and Bayern, because either they get a hot commodity or they force their competitors to overspend.