Nike gets one back for the good ol' US of A
My apologies dear readers, as it has been a while since I have put pen to paper for our blog. I promise that will change in the near future.
In an earlier post Dan spoke of a double blow to the US on the soccer landscape; Kasey Keller's career revival at Fulham taking a possible four-month set back, and Greg Ryan unceremoniously shown the door after a debacle of a World Cup. Since then FIFA has voted against continuing their World Cup Rotation policy, meaning that the US and Mexico are not only engaging in a bidding war amongst themselves, but also the like of England, Russia, Australia, and on an on. Add to that the Premier League all but poo-pooing any chance of a regular season fixture being played across the pond in the US, due to integrity of competition and other such nonsense.
In the midst of all of this, Nike pulled one back for the good guys. In that grandest of American Business traditions, Nike opted to purchase a rival competitor instead of beating them straight-up. In a move estimated at $528 million dollars, Nike has bought out British soccer outfitters Umbro. While this may make some of England and Ireland's fans happy, since Umbro has made a travashamockery of their kits this past qualifying cycle, but does it do anything for the American fan? Discuss amongst yourselves and leave us some comments.
I'll be back later in the week to discuss the whole World Cup Rotation issue.
Enjoy your pancakes
In an earlier post Dan spoke of a double blow to the US on the soccer landscape; Kasey Keller's career revival at Fulham taking a possible four-month set back, and Greg Ryan unceremoniously shown the door after a debacle of a World Cup. Since then FIFA has voted against continuing their World Cup Rotation policy, meaning that the US and Mexico are not only engaging in a bidding war amongst themselves, but also the like of England, Russia, Australia, and on an on. Add to that the Premier League all but poo-pooing any chance of a regular season fixture being played across the pond in the US, due to integrity of competition and other such nonsense.
In the midst of all of this, Nike pulled one back for the good guys. In that grandest of American Business traditions, Nike opted to purchase a rival competitor instead of beating them straight-up. In a move estimated at $528 million dollars, Nike has bought out British soccer outfitters Umbro. While this may make some of England and Ireland's fans happy, since Umbro has made a travashamockery of their kits this past qualifying cycle, but does it do anything for the American fan? Discuss amongst yourselves and leave us some comments.
I'll be back later in the week to discuss the whole World Cup Rotation issue.
Enjoy your pancakes
posted by Nick at
6:32 AM
3 Comments:
Do you think that Nike will give Umbro the freedom to continue their brand and thus some of the awful designs they tossed out over the years? I'm not totally abreast of the agreement.
According to the stuff I've read, Nike will merely own Umbro, but Umbro will still be allowed to slap their label onto kits. I believe they still have their longstanding agreement with the English FA so they will continue supplying those kits. I am not aware if the Umbro designers will be let go, or if Nike will just make them pass everything by the Nike fashion police before releasing. It would seem that Nike could give some of it's kit a designers a different outlet with the Umbro label, but we'll see how it all plays out.
Thanks for the info. By the way I've been terrible for staying in touch. I forgot to call you back, but I'll give you a ring this week. Buried in work! Damn kids!
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