I'm convinced some of you are either insanely overweight or have absolutely no style whatsoever. Adidas may not put out as much stuff as Nike did(Which is funny because a lot that variety never got bought anyway), but there's more than enough stuff for you to be sharp on gameday. Maybe because as I've gotten older, I'm a polo and shorts guy, with the sweatshirts and gym wear being for non gameday, but I've never had a problem finding quality Adidas gear. The one gripe I have with them is that when they hit on a good Player Exclusive design or concept, they will not release it to the general public. I'll never understand why they can't do limited runs of stuff, especially when there's a legit hunger for certain items. Know when to capitalize on something going viral.
Yet another one of your bull**** posts that attempts to weave an alternate reality that simply isn't true.
"A lot of that variety never got bought anyway". Nothing could be further from the truth. I enrolled at UM in 1986. We STILL had unsold 1983 national championship t-shirts in the UM Bookstore. Why? Because they were garbage. The green wasn't right, the design was amateurish, and it wasn't quality name-brand merch. Couple years later, we became THE FIRST SCHOOL to sign an all-sports/all-in apparel and shoe deal with Nike, and we never looked back.
We sold PLENTY of variety in the 1980s. And 1990s. And 2000s. Sure, maybe by the last few years of the Nike contract, our poor play began to lead to less demand for merch.
But what you conveniently ignore is how demand spiked once again, ACROSS THE ENTIRE COLLEGIATE APPAREL INDUSTRY, with the rise of Fanatics.com and other online vendors (including the shoe companies' own sites). The need to "get to All Canes in August-September" abated, as you could buy merchandise all year long and without needing to find a parking spot on campus or on Ponce. If adidas had been our vendor in the 2000s, the sales would have been abysmal. And one only needs to look at OTHER schools that have joined up with Nike over the last 10 years, schools that do not have nearly the same brand-name, brand-awareness, brand-loyalty, and (most importantly) a climate where you can wear athletic apparel 365 days of the year.
But, hey, congratulations to you for "never having a problem finding quality adidas gear". It's only been 10 years. And the quality was definitely better at the beginning. I have an orange adidas polo and a green adidas polo from about 6 or 7 years ago that still hold up well. Meanwhile, the adidas polos I've purchased in the last couple of years are terrible.
I've already made my decision. I will no longer purchase any new apparel from adidas (though I reserve the right to buy a pair of UM shoes when they are marked down to half-price). The Colosseum and Fanatics polos that I have purchased over the past 2 years have been just as good (if not better) than the adidas polos, and for a lower price. And for the fancier stuff, I am paying the price premium for Champion and Tommy Bahama and Reyn Spooner and Cutter & Buck and Mitchell & Ness and Peter Millar. Those brands look better and last longer than what adidas is currently producing.
