BLOG: Apparel Wars Next for NASCAR?

By now, you're all familiar with shoe contracts, apparel contracts and the like in other sports. Companies line up popular teams and pay them a gazillion dollars to rock the latest shoes, apparel and other swag on TV and elsewhere.

NASCAR has entered the fray in a big way.

Under Armour has signed multiyear sponsorships with Hendrick Motorsports and Michael Waltrip Racing to be the sole official provider for both teams. That's not just the track crews, either; everyone from the pit crew to the front office will wear the stylized Under Armour logo.

Under Armour recently signed a 10-year deal with the University of Notre Dame for apparel, replacing Addidas.

According to Tripp Mickle at the Sports Business Journal, "Baltimore-based Under Armour (NYSE: UA) has been evaluating NASCAR teams and opportunities for several years. The company’s marketing team believed the sport had a passionate and loyal fan base that it hadn’t reached. It saw NASCAR team sponsorship as a vehicle to expand its brand awareness and boost sales of both athletic and outdoor apparel. There was a general sense that NASCAR fans are more likely to hunt and fish than other sports fans, and Under Armour has sizable hunting and fishing apparel lines".

In 2013, Under Armour went small with Hendrick in a one-year, trial for the pit crews. According to Mickle, it "opted to expand that deal this year with a three-year extension that will see it outfit not only the pit crews but the rest of Hendrick’s 500 employees. It provides everything from footwear and hats to polos and pullovers. It also has branding on Hendrick pit crew members’ fire suits (Under Armour does not produce fire suits) and on the team’s pit wall banners, haulers, pit box and pit toolbox."

The drivers are not included in the deal, but the company can use their likeness and that of their cars.

Under Armour "signed with Michael Waltrip Racing because it saw similarities between its identity as an upstart brand that’s challenged established apparel companies and the team’s identity as a relatively new, gritty team that’s pushing its way into the upper echelon of NASCAR. Under Armour will supply pit crew apparel and team and executive apparel and receive the same mix of pit assets it is getting from Hendrick. It also will become the presenting sponsor of a new athletic facility and gym that MWR built at its headquarters in Cornelius, N.C., which has been branded as the MWR Performance Center Presented by Under Armour."

The deal is the first apparel sponsorship for MWR. The team previously bought its apparel from Oakley.

“When you can associate yourself with a world-class brand, that’s big,” said Ty Norris, MWR’s executive director for business development. “When you can expand your sponsorship portfolio to help on the budget side of your business, that’s a positive all the way around.”

Read the entire article here.