The University of Tennessee athletic department’s creative team flexed its muscle to promote the college’s transition back to Adidas. From highly choreographed videos to flashy photos to detailed graphics, the rollout was full throttle on every social media platform.
UT and Adidas officially started their new 10-year partnership July 2. UT was previously with Adidas from 1995-2014 before switching to Nike. Once the Nike deal came close to ending, Adidas offered a more lucrative financial package to UT along with NIL partnerships. UT athletes across all 20 sports are eligible to be part of the Adidas NIL Ambassador Network
“We appreciate Adidas recognizing the power of the Tennessee brand and we are excited about the future of this transformative partnership,” UT football coach Josh Heupel says. “Both current and future Vols will benefit from this historic deal. Adidas is providing us with world-class resources and apparel that will continue to push our brand to the forefront of college football for years to come.”
The waiting was the easiest part
Although the Adidas deal became official July 2, UT waited to really promote the partnership. The athletic department wanted to secure the spotlight given numerous other colleges were switching apparel brands on July 1 as well.
On July 2, Adidas released a video narrated by legendary UT quarterback Peyton Manning that included current UT athletes from all sports. UT also released an internally-created hype video. The department waited until the following week to release the new uniforms for all sports.
The orange uniforms for each sport were released July 6, the white uniforms on July 7, the Summitt Blue uniforms for women’s sports on July 8 and the Dark Mode uniforms on July 9. The Smokey Grey uniforms will be released later in July.
Fans were able to begin purchasing Adidas UT gear online and in retail stores on July 10.
As part of the new Adidas uniforms for Lady Vols women’s basketball, the Summitt Blue will remain as a full alternate uniform and be more prominent across the white and orange uniforms than it was with Nike. UT officially renamed the color ‘Summitt Blue’ in 2022 to honor late legendary head coach Pat Summitt.
Lady Vols Hall of Famer Candace Parker is the president of Adidas women’s basketball. Parker helped lead the Lady Vols to back-to-back national titles in 2007-08 while wearing Adidas.
“We couldn’t be more excited to launch our new partnership with Adidas. It’s a global brand that is part of the incredible history of Tennessee Athletics, recognizes the strength of our brand and is committed to investing in the future of our student-athletes and programs,” says Lady Vols basketball coach Kim Caldwell. “We’re proud to rep the ‘Three-Stripes’ and unite in building on to the incredibly successful era our department is experiencing.”
Social rollout key
The custom Adidas jerseys will debut on Aug. 5 when Tennessee women’s soccer plays Clemson in an exhibition game. The football team will take the field in Adidas uniforms for the first time on Sept. 5 when the Vols host Furman in the season opener at Neyland Stadium.
“Relaunching our partnership with Tennessee is incredibly energizing for our team at Adidas,” says Chris McGuire, Adidas’ vice president of sports marketing, North America. “We’re eager to show Vol Nation how we can continue to elevate the standard for their renowned athletic program.”
UT’s entire social campaign and rollout to launch the Adidas partnership was carefully orchestrated and planned. Every sport was involved and released assets on multiple social media platforms. According to Jason Baum, UT’s executive associate athletic director of brand advancement/chief communications officer, the athletic department sent 755 total social posts and had 19,254,368 total impressions and 3,368,422 total video views.
“I’m absolutely thrilled about partnering with Adidas again,” says UT women’s tennis coach Alison Ojeda. “I played here from 1998-2002 and we loved competing in our three-stripes. My teammates and I have a lot of emotional ties to Adidas, so personally, to see our team compete alongside a company who is as passionate about relationships as we are makes me both happy and proud.”