Did WVU Make a Mistake Renewing Their Nike Contract Through 2026?
Sean Taylor
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West Virginia University’s contract with Nike was set to expire June 30, 2019, but it was extended through June 2026. Did WVU make a mistake renewing their Nike contract?
What brought this on? On Monday we shared an article on the new WVU Nike Air Zooms shoes that were released. If you take a quick look at the comments under the Facebook post for the shoes, it’s easy to see where a large percentage of Mountaineer fans stand when it comes to Nike.
If you don’t believe me, check it out.
Sure, Nike has been the top seller in sports apparel for a long time, but obviously there is a deep-rooted hate for Nike in West Virginia. During the Colin Kaepernick kneeling saga, Nike distanced themselves from the hard-working, blue collar portion of America. You know, the people who hard-working West Virginians define themselves as.
And then there are the crazy uniforms that Nike likes to put out. Every year there are countless people complaining about the new, modern uniforms Nike is pushing. A lot of people look back fondly to the classic uniforms during the Nehlen era. Meanwhile, Nike likes to put West Virginia in a new uniform every Saturday.
#Retweet AND #Like If These Are Dope. pic.twitter.com/HF24UznrkB
— R✌️K™️ (@RaspyVoiceKids) January 30, 2019
Despite WVU re-upping with Nike for seven years, is there any possibility that the contract would be terminated? It appears not as even though a large portion of the fan base is anti-Nike, the university has made the decision and moved on from it.
With the Neal Brown era underway in Morgantown, positive PR is all over the place. This would be another way to gain steam in that regard if the company moved on from Nike.
Despite this, we aren’t counting on anything like this happening. WVU has signed with Nike and the kids love Nike. Despite your average West Virginian holding an anti-Nike stance, your typical college football or basketball player wears Nike.