Universities Celebrate Jordan-Nike Anniversary?

Three college basketball teams are wearing special silver uniforms and shoes this week to commemorate the 25 years of the Air Jordan franchise from sportswear behemoth Nike.

Silver uniforms for the Cal Bears and Georgetown Hoyas.

Why basketball shoes need windows is beyond me.

Unsurprisingly, Michael Jordan's alma mater, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, was the first of the three - California-Berkeley and Georgetown are the two others - to wear the outfit in game competition.  In the case of UNC, the introduction of the silver outfit kept one of college basketball's best uniforms (and uniform colors) in the locker room.  It's not called "Carolina Blue" by accident.

In any case, the Tar Heels debuted the silver uniforms last night against Florida State.  And like most games UNC has featured in this year, the Tar Heels lost to Florida State by a score of 77-67, dropping their record to 14-14 on the season.

Let the 25-year countdown to the gold jerseys begin.

And while this is just another case of an apparel company or corporate brand controlling athletics - and amateur athletics at that - it's not even close to the title for the ugliest uniform for the sake of advertising.  That distinction is held by the IHL's Kalamazoo K-Wings in a McDonald's-themed game from a couple of years ago.  And, not only were the uniforms yellow, but so was the ice.

Um.  Yeah.

Nothing pretty about yellow ice.

So, there is clearly no line that isn't able to be crossed.  I suppose that it just seems a bit more uncomfortable when that line is so easily crossed in college athletics.  It also seems that people care less and less.

Occasionally, however, there are people who fight back.  A recent example - which went down in late January - was the movement to stop Nike's redesign of the Michigan State University Spartan logo.  When news broke that Nike and the University were moving to rollout a new brand identity campaign, the public got hold of the potential logo change below and made their voices heard.

The old logo on the left, the proposed logo on the right.

Students mobilized on Facebook and created groups designed to reach the administration and stop the new logo rollout.  Almost 20,000 fans on Facebook joined the group, which mass e-mailed University coaches and administrators.  And even though head basketball coach Tom Izzo was in favor of the proposed logo changes, the fans eventually got their way.  MSU Athletic Director Mark Ellis, in a statement from earlier this month:

"The recent disclosure of an updated Spartan logo...has resulted in a flurry of concern and discontent among some of our students, alumni, and fans...After careful consideration, we will use the current Spartan logo design, first used in the late 1970s, to build our visual brand identity."

Good to know that opposition still exists out there and that people still think that some things, like Spartan helmets, are perfect just the way they are.

An Opposition to 'Combat'

A couple of posts ago, I paid some attention to Nike's Pro Combat Uniforms, noting the overwhelming militaristic sense of the name "Combat" especially in regards to the truck on Virginia Tech's campus reading: "Prepare for Combat."

Now, it seems that I've overlooked Nike's plan to implement "Combat" uniforms in other sports.  In this case, the notable example is with regards to basketball...specifically, Lebron James.

Over the past few years in the city of Cleveland, Nike has used ten stories of an office building near Quicken Loans Arena to display Lebron James murals/advertising.  The most recent of these billboards features "Jesus" Lebron, arms spread wide with the tag line "We Are All Witnesses."

Just this week, Nike proposed a new advertisement for the space.  As part of the "Combat" line of apparel, the new mural echoes the VT truck and implores us to "Prepare for Combat."

Yet the proposed billboard was rejected by the Cleveland Planning Commission because they believe the new billboard represents pure advertising while the current billboard is civic art.  According to a Cleveland Plain Dealer article, CPC leaders not only thought Nike was "going over the line to market a Nike product," but were also dismayed by "the lack of a 'Cleveland' or 'Cavaliers' presence on the mural."

More importantly, however, commission Chairman Tony Coyne "said he felt the 'combat' reference is also inappropriate, at a time when U.S. soldiers are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq."

It is interesting to see Nike's militarism recognized and rejected in Cleveland, but accepted and celebrated in Blacksburg, VA (and other college campuses around the nation).  The truck seems so much more overt, and yet VT officials and students seemed to accept it so readily.  Does this have more to do with the nature of the relationship between Nike and its affiliated universities?  Can the truck be called 'civic art' in any way?  I'm not sure, but I do see it as encouraging that Cleveland commissioners took a stand, for Cleveland and for the nature and idea of sport: a game and just a game.

The Sexiness of the Nike Swoosh...

I have to carry this idea of sexiness over from my earlier post.  Instead, however, of discussing the issue of sex and female basketball players, something else from the photos on the FSU website caught my attention: namely, the prodigious placement of the Nike Swoosh.

In each shot, the basketball is an equal subject to the body.  And, even though these basketballs also feature the FSU logo, it is the Nike Swoosh that is given prominence.  Just another example of Nike's careful image management...which, also happens to marginalize the school in favor of the corporation.

So, is this for us, the ticket-buying populace, or for future student-athletes, this affirmation of FSU's connection to Nike?  That affirmation has made its presence known on FSU football, with the recent launch of the FSU Pro Combat jersey...

With nearly a dozen Nike Swoosh logos on the uniform above, and with the logo invading every part of student-athlete promotion, will we ever reach Nike overkill?  Or is it simply an accepted part of collegiate sport?  Is it inevitable?  It seems so, because...well...in the words of Horatio Sanz, "it's just too sexy!"