Marketplace Roundup

Prince To Unveil New Sharapova Collection Racquet Bag At U.S. Open

Prince will introduce its new line of advanced performance racquet bags at the U.S. Open next month. Prince will unveil its Prince Pro Team 100 line and the new Sharapova Collection inspired by Sony Ericsson WTA Tour player Maria Sharapova. The Sharapova Collection will be an all-white bag with black Prince logo, and it will feature Sharapova's signature seal embroidered on the bag. All Prince athletes will carry a Prince bag throughout the tournament (Prince Sports).

READY FOR TWO-A-DAYS: Oregon State Univ. (OSU) will debut new Nike football uniforms this season that utilize "performance fabrics that produce a tight, shrink-wrapped fit that minimizes grab points." The jersey will be available before OSU's season-opener August 28 against Stanford Univ. and can be ordered in advance online (Portland OREGONIAN, 7/29). The updated uniforms, which draw on the school's heritage, were set to debut next season but were moved up a year (OSU)....FANBLOGS.com's Kevin Donahue reported the Virginia Tech (VT) football team will also be "sporting a new Nike uniform design" this season. The jerseys "feature a unique side/sleeve color panel that will offset the jersey's base color, instead of the Nike 'piping' design that [VT] has sported for the last few seasons" (FANBLOGS.com, 7/26).

ROUNDUP: Travel firm Netflights.com has signed a three-year deal to become the jersey sponsors of English Coca-Cola Football League One club Leeds United. The team will debut the new kits on Saturday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed (Yorkshire EVENING POST, 7/30)....Modell's Sporting Goods has hired Strategic as its sports marketing agency to evaluate its sports sponsorship portfolio (Strategic).