Notre Dame Announces Partnership with Under Armour

News broke two weeks ago that Notre Dame and Under Armour were set to announce a longterm partnership for Under Armour to replace adidas as the official uniform supplier for Notre Dame starting in July.  Tuesday Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick and Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank made it official with a joint press conference at Notre Dame.

Full video of the press conference below, but before you get to that, here are a few quick thoughts on the deal.

• Reports are that the deal is worth $90 Million over 10 years making Notre Dame’s contract with Under Armour the most valuable shoe/apparel contract in college sports history. 
• Both parties stressed that Notre Dame’s uniforms will be true to Notre Dame’s traditions so that should put to bed any concerns over Under Armour making any crazy uniforms for Notre Dame.  Under Armour’s deal with Auburn should be proof of this too.  Auburn’s football uniforms are very traditional.
• At the same time, Jack Swarbrick has talked about making all of Notre Dame’s sports uniforms consistent so that all Notre Dame sports teams are recognizable.  This wasn’t something I had actually spent much time thinking about but the football, basketball, baseball, hockey, etc teams do all have their own styles and really only share similar colors – and even the colors are not always that consistent when it comes to the gold.
• Notre Dame and Under Armour both talked about the technology behind the uniforms more so than the style and colors though.  Swarbrick talked about being a lab of sorts for Under Armour and pushing the envelope on uniform technology.
• Notre Dame made it clear that there wouldn’t be any stadium signage for Under Armour involved in the deal.
• Notre Dame received stock in Under Armour as part of the agreement although although no financial information was disclosed.  The only actual financial data on the deal was reported by ESPN’s Darren Rovell.
• This looks like a great deal for Notre Dame in the sense that Notre Dame will be Under Armour’s marquee brand in the same way Michigan is to adidas and Oregon is to Nike and not just from a financial standpoint.