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Utah's adidas deal reflects apparel market recalibration as Big 12 expansion creates cluster leverage for non-Nike brands willing to overpay on inventory.
2025-26
academic year
$60 million
over the contract period based on comparable peer agreements
fall 2024
Under Armour's deal
2015
at roughly
The University of Utah has signed a multi-year apparel partnership with adidas, ending its relationship with Under Armour and closing a procurement process that included serious conversations with Nike. The deal positions Utah as one of adidas's marquee Big 12 properties starting in the 2025-26 academic year, with financial terms estimated north of $60 million over the contract period based on comparable peer agreements.
Utah's athletic department spent four months evaluating bids before selecting adidas. Nike was the frontrunner through late January, according to two people familiar with the discussions, but pricing structure and creative control over special-edition uniforms became friction points. adidas closed with aggressive inventory guarantees and a willingness to lean into Utah's red-and-white blocking for basketball and football alternates, particularly valuable as the Utes enter their first Big 12 season in fall 2024. Under Armour's deal, signed in 2015 at roughly $4.5 million annually, expired without renewal talks.
The shift matters because conference realignment has compressed apparel negotiation timelines. Utah joins a Big 12 that already includes adidas schools Kansas, Kansas State, and Texas Tech, creating cluster economics for the brand's college football inventory planning. Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA—Utah's former Pac-12 peers now in the Big Ten—all carry Nike or Jordan Brand deals valued above $8 million per year. Utah's move to adidas suggests the athletic department prioritized guaranteed spend over logo prestige, a rational choice for a program that generated $93 million in revenue last fiscal year but lacks the television distribution upside of its West Coast rivals now in power conferences with bigger media deals.
adidas also gains leverage in the expanding women's basketball market. Utah's program, led by Lynne Roberts, posted 23 wins last season and drew an average of 4,100 fans per home game, ranking in the top 40 nationally. The brand plans to feature Utah prominently in its women's hoops creative for 2025, per a person with knowledge of the strategy. That matters to athletic directors at peer institutions watching how apparel partners allocate marketing spend between men's and women's programs as Title IX enforcement tightens and NIL collectives begin targeting women's rosters.
The timeline now tightens on secondary partnerships. Utah's athletic department is expected to finalize a new footwear deal—likely separate from the adidas apparel contract—by late May, with New Balance and ASICS both circling for Olympic sports. Meanwhile, adidas will need to staff design and account management resources in Salt Lake City by June to hit production deadlines for fall 2025 football uniforms. The brand's college sports division has been rebuilding after losing marquee contracts to Nike and Jordan in recent cycles; Utah represents a test case for whether adidas can compete in markets where conference realignment has reset school leverage.
Under Armour, for its part, now holds 31 FBS partnerships, down from 37 in 2022. The company has publicly shifted focus toward basketball and individual athlete endorsements, but the loss of a Pac-12 legacy program—even one now in the Big 12—narrows its college football footprint in the West to just Colorado State and Hawaiʻi.
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