March Madness Daily: Bryant Made (Recent) Tournament History
The Bulldogs lost by 25 points, but also did something the NCAAA tournament hadn't seen since 2018.
Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Here’s something you may not have noticed about the first round:
Eben: For the past seven years, every single team that played in the men’s NCAA tournament has worn jerseys made by Nike, Adidas, or Under Armour. That run ended last night, when Bryant 🐶 took the court against Michigan State 🤺 in uniforms made by New Balance.
It’s not, however, a major milestone for New Balance. You won’t find the company celebrating on social media, and you can’t buy New Balance x Bryant apparel in any online shop. The company doesn’t even have a deal direct with Bryant—instead, the university uses an intermediary called BSN Sports that allows it to buy uniforms and sneakers from New Balance at a discounted price.
I broke down the specifics in this Sportico story on Friday. It’s a look at 1) how apparel deals work for schools (like Bryant) that you’ve never heard of, 2) how the college sports apparel wars have shifted in the past decade, and 3) how New Balance’s basketball presence went from big to dormant to live again. Did you know, for example, that the first NBA player with a $1 million shoe deal signed it with New Balance?1
If you’re curious, here’s a look at how the brand distribution in has changed in the last 11 years of the NCAA tournament 👇
Programming note: We’ll be sending daily business nuggets throughout the NCAA tournaments. If that’s not your thing, you can opt out of daily March Madness posts by updating your settings here or with the button below. We’ll return to normal programming in April.
Club Sportico is a community organized by Sportico, a digital media company launched in 2020 to cover the business side of sports. You can read breaking news, smart analysis, and in-depth features from Eben, Jacob and their colleagues at Sportico.com, and listen to the Sporticast podcast wherever you get your audio. Contact us at club@sportico.com.
It was James Worthy, as a rookie, in 1982. That sponsorship ended poorly for New Balance, and it launched a ~15 year period where the company basically refused to have star athlete endorsers.