adminOn August 1, no doubt to much fanfare, adidas will release Manchester United’s new kit. The right to do so has cost the German sportswear giant a staggering £750 million over 10 years. For months it has been the talk of social media. Dozens of mock-ups have been released with fans across the globe whipped into a frenzy over the type of shirts Wayne Rooney and Co will wear this season.
Here, Sportsmail takes a close look at the belief-defying details of the world-record deal, reveals how bosses at Nike took less than an hour reject to United’s proposals and explains why industry insiders believe this could be executive vice chairman Ed Woodward’s finest moment of his time at Old Trafford.
This weekend, thousands of seats bearing the famous Nike logo will be ripped out of Old Trafford.
They will be taken elsewhere and painstakingly repainted to ensure that come the start of the season it is the stripes of adidas rather than the swoosh which takes pride of place at the Theatre of Dreams.
Over at the club’s Megastore, behind the East Stand, the shutters will come down following a 60-percent-off sale on everything United.
They will remain there for a week — no doubt delighting those who hawk their unofficial wares on the forecourts surrounding the famous old stadium.
Inside, a transformation will take place. Former Nike staff, including the club’s mascot, Fred the Red, will become United employees and any trace of the US firm will be removed ahead of the grand reopening.
Adidas, still smarting from losing the lucrative NBA merchandising rights to their old rivals, will no doubt view this one as a win.
But it may come as a surprise to hear that not many at the sprawling Nike campus in Portland, Oregon, will be crying into their Budweisers over saying farewell.
Because Sportsmail can reveal that when Ed Woodward and group managing director Richard Arnold issued a list of what they would need to see to extend their existing kit deal, senior Nike officials took less than an hour to dismiss it out of hand. One of the biggest stumbling blocks was United’s insistence that rights for non first-team and training kit merchandise would be returning to the club.
Unlike the 50/50 split currently in operation (after a set figure has been reached), they wanted to make sure that if a United fan in Hong Kong bought a United clock and bed covers, that money would be going into the club’s piggy bank.
That insistence, coupled with a world record £750m (more than twice as much as the nearest European rival) asking price, meant for Nike it was a no-brainer. First came disbelief then rejection. As one door closed, another was opened for the Germans.
All of this, of course, may not concern fans.
Adidas’ victory has been greeted euphorically by many of the United faithful. They remember the iconic kits of the 80s and will be delighted to hear that the manufacturers will be releasing a number of retro items through their originals range.
But an industry insider, with knowledge of the deal, warned that they may soon be singing from a different hymn sheet. — mailonline.
Online Reporter