Louisiana Tech will have "consistency with its apparel across" its 16 sports starting next year, as the school "struck a five-year apparel agreement" with adidas, according to Sean Isabella of the Monroe NEWS-STAR. The deal is worth $3.025M and runs through the '21-22 school year. Louisiana Tech will "receive $650,000 in product the first year then $485,000 in the four subsequent years." The school will "spend $300,000 annually on its own to push its average up" to more than $1M. The "$300,000/$650,000 breakdown is far more effective than the previous deal," in which the school that received just $125,000 in product. Prior to the adidas deal, Louisiana Tech had been "all over the map in terms of apparel for its various sports." Nike "had a deal" with football and men's basketball, while baseball "had an agreement with Adidas, Under Armour had a deal with women's basketball and New Balance provided gear to the softball program." The contract will go into effect in July for all sports "except women's basketball, which has one year left on its deal with Under Armour." AD Tommy McClelland yesterday said, "Being able to be consistent across all platforms is huge in terms of branding...and having a persona representative on our campus that can speak to the needs of our student-athletes and address our coach's concerns. We will get that with Adidas. We had not previously been getting that." McClelland said that Louisiana Tech's new deal is "'one of the top apparel deals in all of the mid-majors' and the top apparel deal in Conference USA" (Monroe NEWS-STAR, 11/19).
