Under Armour Schools and Shoes

[sftennisfan]

Do players on Under Armour teams (UCLA, Auburn, South Carolina, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Cal) wear Under Armour tennis shoes or do they wear Asics or New Balance? I think Under Armour schools' teams that are in a sport where Under Armour doesn't really make a shoe (or not much) for their sport tend to wear something OTHER THAN Nike or Adidas.

 

[Liam Grennon]

Do players on Under Armour teams (UCLA, Auburn, South Carolina, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Cal) wear Under Armour tennis shoes or do they wear Asics or New Balance? I think Under Armour schools' teams that are in a sport where Under Armour doesn't really make a shoe (or not much) for their sport tend to wear something OTHER THAN Nike or Adidas.

I don't know about full schools, but a D1 player that I know uses there tennis shoes. He attended the Mouratoglou academy so maybe he had individual connections or through the team but the school he goes to is a Nike sponsored.

 

[Gemini]

I didn't know that Under Armour made tennis-specific shoes. I would think that teams would have access to Under Armour running shoes but I've never seen anyone other than the Murray brothers wearing tennis shoes.

 

[SpecialGunpowder]

A quick glance at social media suggests the following footwear.

UCLA - UA off court Asics on court
Auburn - Nike
South Carolina - Nike
Notre Dame - Asics
Wisonsin - Asics
Cal - UA off court Asics on court

 

[sftennisfan]

A quick glance at social media suggests the following footwear.

UCLA - UA off court Asics on court
Auburn - Nike
South Carolina - Nike
Notre Dame - Asics
Wisonsin - Asics
Cal - UA off court Asics on court

Thanks! I always thought that was a big negative about a school going with UA. Sure, UA makes tennis clothes and stuff for you to work out in but the actual tennis shoes - yeah, Murray wears them but I don't even know if can buy them.

 

[Herb]

all of the UA schools I know of wear non UA tennis shoes on court. UA does not make a tennis shoe except for custom shoes for a few players.

 

[Nostradamus]

A quick glance at social media suggests the following footwear.

UCLA - UA off court Asics on court
Auburn - Nike
South Carolina - Nike
Notre Dame - Asics
Wisonsin - Asics
Cal - UA off court Asics on court

Some of the UCLA guys wear Adidas Barricades.

 

[sftennisfan]

Some of the UCLA guys wear Adidas Barricades.

That makes sense given UCLA was an Adidas school and some of those guys might have started in those shoes. It seems like there must be some unofficial encouragement from Under Armour that if you can't wear our shoes (or we don't make them), wear stuff from Asics or New Balance or someone other than Nike/Adidas.

 

[Gemini]

That makes sense given UCLA was an Adidas school and some of those guys might have started in those shoes. It seems like there must be some unofficial encouragement from Under Armour that if you can't wear our shoes (or we don't make them), wear stuff from Asics or New Balance or someone other than Nike/Adidas.

I doubt that Under Armour could dictate what shoes the UCLA tennis program wears since Under Armour doesn't make tennis-specific shoes.

 

[sftennisfan]

I doubt that Under Armour could dictate what shoes the UCLA tennis program wears since Under Armour doesn't make tennis-specific shoes.

When Under Armour commits to paying UCLA in the 9 figures, I think they can put some pressure to have shoes other than Nike or Adidas be worn. Obviously there is a limit but I don't think it is an accident that lots of Under Armour school players wear Asics.

 

[Gemini]

When Under Armour commits to paying UCLA in the 9 figures, I think they can put some pressure to have shoes other than Nike or Adidas be worn. Obviously there is a limit but I don't think it is an accident that lots of Under Armour school players wear Asics.

The leverage belongs to UCLA regardless of how much money Under Armour is offering. Under Armour may be able to strongly encourage the tennis program to use shoes other than Nike/adidas but I doubt they're mandating it. If anything, it's most likely Nike/adidas telling UCLA that they won't do a shoes-only deal. With UA unable to provide shoes and Nike/adidas possibly being unwilling to do so, UCLA turned to the brands that have a tennis shoe line but can't really provide kits for all the remaining UCLA sports programs.

 

[Nostradamus]

When Under Armour commits to paying UCLA in the 9 figures, I think they can put some pressure to have shoes other than Nike or Adidas be worn. Obviously there is a limit but I don't think it is an accident that lots of Under Armour school players wear Asics.

Underarmour makes great shirts, it keeps you cool during Hot days and it keeps you warm if you weather gets chilly. I am not sure how they do it but it is very unique fabric. I have no idea why it is so difficult for them to come out with Great tennis shoes as well ?

 

[sftennisfan]

Underarmour makes great shirts, it keeps you cool during Hot days and it keeps you warm if you weather gets chilly. I am not sure how they do it but it is very unique fabric. I have no idea why it is so difficult for them to come out with Great tennis shoes as well ?

It's not easy to make shoes well. Nike and Adidas have spent hundreds of millions on R&D and have had so much chance due to sheer volume to work out kinks. I'm frankly surprised Under Armour has done as well as they have in making the few shoes they do make.

 

[UpOrDown]

UA, not surprisingly, has different deals with each of its schools. That said, UA's practice is to allows sports in which UA does not make footwear (i.e. tennis and volleyball) to wear sneakers made by any manufacturer other than Nike or Adidas. Most go with Asics because Asics offers a pretty good deal on their shoes to college teams. UCLA wore Asics this past season as did South Carolina and Notre Dame. If a player was wearing another brand they likely purchased their shoes individually. Oddly, I did notice that while South Florida was wearing Asics in the beginning of this past season they were wearing Adidas shoes at AAC tournament. I have no explanation why they switched mid-season or if this was endorsed by UA.

 

[SavvyStringer]

A quick glance at social media suggests the following footwear.

UCLA - UA off court Asics on court
Auburn - Nike
South Carolina - Nike
Notre Dame - Asics
Wisonsin - Asics
Cal - UA off court Asics on court

South Carolina UA off court plus ASICS off court and ASICS on court. We have a couple players that wear others as well. One of our guys wears Yonex and swears by them and one of our girls wears kswiss while another wears Babolats. We’re supposed to be a UA test school and have been hearing about the shoes for a couple years now but have yet to see anything. Auburn wore Adidas two years ago but I didn’t see them last year.

 

[SavvyStringer]

When Under Armour commits to paying UCLA in the 9 figures, I think they can put some pressure to have shoes other than Nike or Adidas be worn. Obviously there is a limit but I don't think it is an accident that lots of Under Armour school players wear Asics.

If it’s like soccer cleats at South Carolina they probably wear Nike and just black out the logos with sharpie. There’s only a couple players on the men’s or women’s soccer teams that actually wear UA cleats. It’s mostly blacked out nike and adidas.

 

[sftennisfan]

If it’s like soccer cleats at South Carolina they probably wear Nike and just black out the logos with sharpie. There’s only a couple players on the men’s or women’s soccer teams that actually wear UA cleats. It’s mostly blacked out nike and adidas.

Wow, that says a lot about the shoe quality of UA because obviously they get the UA cleats as part of the school deal. I've always been skeptical about UA shoe quality. Even Nike, their stuff wasn't always uniformly good in their first 10 years or so. Nike had a ways to go to catch up to Adidas in soccer for example.

 

[sftennisfan]

South Carolina UA off court plus ASICS off court and ASICS on court. We have a couple players that wear others as well. One of our guys wears Yonex and swears by them and one of our girls wears kswiss while another wears Babolats. We’re supposed to be a UA test school and have been hearing about the shoes for a couple years now but have yet to see anything. Auburn wore Adidas two years ago but I didn’t see them last year.

So UA for travel, running and weight room training? I can't figure out why UA can't develop a tennis shoe given they even have Murray as a sponsored player.

 

[SavvyStringer]

So UA for travel, running and weight room training? I can't figure out why UA can't develop a tennis shoe given they even have Murray as a sponsored player.

UA for travel, weight room, just walking around, ASICS of choice for running, and ASICS or other non-Nike/adidas for court shoes. It’s a hard market and the durability has to be right. I think that’s the biggest thing right now. They make good shoes overall but Tennis rubber compound is a whole different ball game.