University of Central Florida's $3 million exclusive contract with Adidas is in jepardy as basketball player, Marcus Jordan, sticks to his father's famous Nike cheap air jordan retail shoes.
Adidas spokeswoman Andrea Corso said in an e-mail to the Orlando Sentinel, "The University of Central Florida has chosen not to deliver on their contractual commitment to adidas. As a result we have chosen not to continue our relationship with them moving forward."
UCF Athletics Director Keith Tribble said late Wednesday that he was surprised by the statement from adidas.bape shoes
"There's really not much I can say because I don't know anything about it and have not heard anything official from adidas about our agreement," Tribble said. "As I said before, we spoke with adidas officials throughout this process and were continuing contract negotiations with them. I have not seen anything in writing or heard directly from adidas about a change in our relationship."
Jordan, son of NBA legend Michael Jordan, opted to wear Air Jordans during UCF's season opening exhibition game Wednesday night despite a controversy surrounding his footwear choices.air force 1 shoes
UCF officials reached an agreement with adidas regional representatives allowing Jordan to wear Nike shoes despite the school's exclusive adidas contract. Higher-level adidas corporate officials later objected to Jordan being allowed to wear a competitor's shoes. UCF stood by the promise it made to Jordan that he could wear his father's shoes.
The university and adidas had a previous agreement that ran from 2005 to 2010 but had reached a tentative deal a contract valued at $3 million to run through 2015 and were already operating under the terms of that agreement. UCF was slated to get all apparel, shoes and equipment free of charge. It was a step up from the previous deal that had required the university to buy some items at wholesale prices for 15 UCF teams. UCF was already operating under the contract terms thanks to a verbal agreement, but adidas' statement indicates that verbal agreement will no longer be honored.
Jordan wore a pair of white Air Jordans with no prominent logos. His teammates wore white adidas with black trademark stripes. Jordan also was wearing black ankle braces with the adidas logo prominently displayed. As a result, the only clear logos near his feet belonged to adidas. UCF basketball coach Kirk Speraw was focused on the Knights' exhibition game against St. Leo and did not know about the contractual changes with adidas.