Under Armor has informed UCLA that it is seeking to terminate its 15-year, $ 280 million clothing and footwear contract with the university, the sportswear brand confirmed in a statement Saturday.
The record-setting agreement dates back to May 2016, when the two parties reached an agreement that went into effect in July 2017 and ended UCLA’s previous affiliation with Adidas. The 15-year, $ 280 million contract broke the previous record for footwear and apparel contracts, beating Nike and the state of Ohio’s 15-year, $ 252 million contract earlier that year.
In its statement, Under Armor stated that it has not received certain marketing benefits from the Bruins program to which it owes it.
“Under Armor has recently made the difficult decision to suspend our partnership with UCLA, as we have been paying for marketing benefits that we have not received for an extended period,” the company statement read, according to the Los Angeles Times. “The agreement allows us to end in such a case and we are exercising that right.”
Addressing the actions of Under Armor, UCLA said Saturday that the school is working to continue its dealings with the sportswear brand.
“We are exploring all of our options to resist Under Armor’s actions,” the UCLA statement said. “We remain committed to providing our hardworking staff and student athletes with the footwear, apparel and equipment necessary to train and compete at the highest level, as they and our faithful Bruin supporters deserve.”
UCLA’s athletic program is estimated to fall short at $ 18.9 million for fiscal year 2019 after spring sports were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The shortfall caused the athletics program to accept a loan with interest from the university.
Athletic director Dan Guerrero’s 18-year tenure at UCLA is slated to end this week as he will be replaced by former Boston College athletic director Martin Jarmond.
Under Armor has contracts with two other schools in the Pac-12, California and Utah, while Nike has partnerships with seven schools and Adidas represents two others at the conference.
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