Under Armour continues to attempt to escape its west coast college apparel deals, and the schools involved are vowing to fight it.
The brand is reportedly seeking to get out of its deal with Cal, the second Pac-12 school with whom Under Armour is trying to sever its business ties. Michael Smith of Sports Business Journal reported Saturday that the brand was eyeing the Cal deal for possible cancellation, and both Cal and UCLA have been removed from the brand’s website.
Under Armour way overpaid UCLA, now looking for escape. Hearing the same thing at Cal, another head-scratching UA deal. https://t.co/GO1gzMeWEM
— Michael Smith (@SmittySBJ) June 27, 2020
Under Armour's current list of programs on its web site after scraping existence of UCLA + Cal it appears earlier today pic.twitter.com/fIDbvzdJGA
— Brad Crawford (@BCrawford247) June 27, 2020
On Sunday, Cal’s athletic department released a statement saying that they had no reason to believe they had violated the terms of the deal on their end, and that Under Armour did not have grounds for termination.
Statement from @CalAthletics on its @UnderArmour partnership. Cal is saying the same thing UCLA is – that they haven't violated their agreement.
Under Armour inked UCLA and Cal within just a few months back in 2016. A *very* different time for the company #SportsBiz pic.twitter.com/asx0U6If6d
— Eben Novy-Williams (@novy_williams) June 28, 2020
This is threatening to turn into a messy situation. Under Armour signed a 10-year, $86 million deal with Cal in 2016. That was around the same time they made an even bigger deal with UCLA — another deal Under Armour is trying to get out of.
Under Armour’s financial situation was not great even before the pandemic badly hurt global business. It seems as though the brand is trying to get out of some bad deals that they overpaid for citing the fact that they are not receiving marketing benefits that were part of the deal. Expect both schools to do everything they can to prevent this from happening, perhaps even taking legal action to try to uphold the contracts.
