On March 2, Pittsburg State University Athletics announced that the university will be embarking on a 10-year partnership with Nike, the world’s largest athletic gear supplier. This endeavor cancels the university’s contract with Adidas.
Anthony Crespino, PSU Vice President of Athletics, discussed the reasoning behind the university’s decision.
“The biggest part of everything that we’re doing is just, what’s the thing our student athletes want? What’s going to help us in recruiting? Just looking at everything on a year-to-year, day-to-day basis, how can we elevate the Pitt State brand?” He added, “Going through that process, it just became apparent that we could get some more bang for our buck out of that.”
This agreement entails Pitt State using BSN Sports for equipment purchases. Crespino explained that this change would have a positive impact on students.
“It’s just going to allow us to do more for them in terms of just apparel, gear, being able to provide more equipment, just really continue to invest in them.” He continued, “Then, there’s some other things down the road, financially, that once you get a couple of things ironed out, there’s going to be some additional things that are going to help drive some more revenue back to the student-athletes.”
Changing contracts did not come from a place of malice towards Adidas. Crespino explained, “The hardest part is just, Adidas was a good partner, and there wasn’t any ill feelings or anything. It was a mutual decision, exit, however you want to call it.”
Crespino added, “The hardest part is sometimes, that affects people locally, and we hate that. That’s not something that you’re looking to do. But at the end of the day, just with the rising costs of athletics and the changing landscape, we just got to be able to bring in as much revenue as we can and have to leverage our brand and the Pitt State brand as much as possible to be able to provide our student athletes the best student-athlete experience that they can get.”
According to Crespino, this new deal will not prevent local apparel stores such as Jock’s Nitch from selling Pitt State branded items. “So from a Nike standpoint, the Nike licensee that basically goes through Pitt as a university, Jock’s Nitch will be able to continue to sell all the apparel stuff they’re selling right now. Still ironing out all those details, but they’ll still be able to use the split face logo for all the Pitt State marks.”
Crespino concluded by saying that he’s “just really excited about it.” He continued, “I think our coaches are excited about it. Student athletes are excited about it. I think there’s some additional things coming in the future that I think our alumni and fans will be excited about, and it’ll be great.”