One of the more perplexing athletic apparel deals is coming to an end. In 2018, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will leave Russell Athletic and formally begin the three-stripe life with Adidas.
In June, the school made it crystal clear that it would not be re-upping with Russell:
Tech athletic director Todd Stansbury has been negotiating with Adidas, Nike and Under Armour to be the new outfitter of the Yellow Jackets.
“We’ve got another year in our contract, so we definitely, with the direction that Russell’s kind of moving in corporate-wise, we’re going to be making a transition,” Stansbury told the AJC.
Apparel agreements factor in pretty heavily into recruitment. When you’re in the business of appealing to teenagers, being cool is of the utmost importance. Russell is decidedly not cool. Adidas used to not really be that cool either, but it’s fixed some of its wackiest design aesthetics.
These slick Nebraska alternates are just one example of Adidas’ improvement:
How y'all like these new 1997 mesh-style Nebraska jerseys by Adidas? pic.twitter.com/5Md0y5wpWu
— SB Nation CFB (@SBNationCFB) July 27, 2017
Georgia Tech blog From The Rumble Seat:
The new uniforms, new apparel, and revamped visual brand are all going to make for an extremely exciting time to be a Yellow Jacket fan. The large-scale trend that this change is a part of is going to make it fun to be a Georgia Tech fan for years to come.
Now, Georgia Tech gets to benefit by making the big move.