No More Nike: Washington Signs $119 Million Deal With Adidas

No More Nike: Washington Signs $119 Million Deal With Adidas

Adidas has officially inked the University of Washington to a 10-year deal worth almost $12 million per year.

Apr 10, 2018 by Kolby Paxton
No More Nike: Washington Signs $119 Million Deal With Adidas

The Washington-Oregon rivalry just got even better.

Not quite two months after initially pitching the Huskies on the idea of leaving Nike, Adidas closed the deal, inking the University of Washington to a 10-year deal worth almost $12 million per year.

By contrast, the school’s 20-year deal with Nike was paying around $3.5 million per year.

The Huskies are the proud new owners of one of the 10 most lucrative deals in college athletics, dwarfing the eight-year, $33.8 million deal that Adidas' only other Pac-12 program, Arizona State, agreed to just three years ago.

When Chris Petersen’s squad takes the field in September, it will still be rocking Nike duds, as Washington’s current Nike deal does not expire until June 2019.

The total value of the deal could also climb relatively substantially in the event that the Huskies win conference and/or national titles, with up to a half-million bucks in bonuses available for such exploits.

In essence, the Adidas deal does two very tangible things for Washington Athletics:

First, it furthers the financial turnaround that the department has enjoyed under athletic director Jennifer Cohen—from a $7.6 million deficit in 2016 to a $1.4 million projected profit in 2018.

Second, and more importantly to Huskies alums, it separates the school from Oregon alum Phil Knight’s company, which has long been a touchy subject in Seattle. Washington vs. Oregon can now, for all intents and purposes, be considered Adidas vs. Nike.

So, here’s looking forward to the always unpredictable football uniform design coming next summer—and here’s hoping it’s more 2017 Miami, less 2016 UCLA.