I meant to post this over a week ago when it actually happened, but I didn’t. So, here it is:
The Scottish F.A. announced on October 6th that they have signed a kit deal with Adidas. The deal will last four and a half years, from January 2010 until June 2014. Scotland will debut the kit in their friendly against the Czech Republic in March. (Needless to say, I will be pre-ordering it as soon as it’s made available to the public.) This deal was necessitated by the declaration of bankruptcy by Scotland’s then-supplier, Italian sportswear giant Diadora, in June. Perhaps the greatest impact of Scotland signing a deal with one of the “big three” (Adidas, Nike, and Puma) footballing companies will be the increased exposure the side will receive as a result of being associated with the other national sides that currently wear “die marke mit den 3 streifen”- Germany, Spain, Argentina, etc.
No word yest on those clubs (Portsmouth, Motherwell, Lille, etc.) who signed with the other sportswear company- Canterbury of New Zealand- that went “belly up” this summer.
I’m glad they didn’t sign with someone else (i.e., Kappa, Lotto, Champion, etc.)…although I’m kind of surprised they didn’t go with Umbro.
They were with Umbro for about 30 years (c. 1970-2000), but quite frankly, Umbro were a bigger deal then because Nike wasn’t in the picture, and many other companies (excluding Adidas) were “regional”- Italian teams wore Diadora, Lotto, Errea, Lanzera, etc., and the money wasn’t as “big” as it is now.
I think in the last decade that Umbro as basically the last well-known English kit maker has thrown all it’s money at England and has little to spread around elsewhere. As a result, they’re pretty much associated with “England” and I can’t see the Scots taking a deal from them…unless, you know, the money was right!
But seriously, here are the national teams- other than England- that Umbro currently sponsors:
* Azerbaijan
* Bangladesh
* Dominican Republic
* Kazakhstan
* Mauritania
* Northern Ireland
* Norway
* Republic of Ireland
* Sweden
* Tajikistan
* Chinese Taipei
Um, yeah.
I’m just glad Scotland didn’t loose it’s collective mind like it did with the Fila deal and go with Under Armor or somebody like that!
I’m surprised Under Armor and the like didn’t bid hard for that, though. If Under Armor’s really looking to break into the kit business, they’ve gotta get someone like Scotland.
Gonna be some x-mas list this year, huh?
I too am surprised that they didn’t try to go with Umbro. especially considering how nice Umbro’s stuff has been turning out lately. I think that Adidas is good as long as they remember to keep it simple (a navy shirt with a white collar, white sleeve caps and 3 simple white stripes on the shoulders would look awesome)
Of the current Adidas range, I’d like to see Scotland use the current Toronto FC away shirt in SNT colors: blue body, white accents and red secondary accents. And, of course, white shorts and red socks.
HOWEVER, a little birdie told me that one of the reasons Scotland chose Adidas was that Adidas was willing to not only produce a “Scotland only” shirt template in a “retro” style complete with “trefoil” style Adidas logo.
Another, and maybe more important reason to go with Adidas? The deal is worth 400% (5m pounds v. 1m pounds) more than the previous deal with Diadora.
The trefoil logo alone is worth the switch.