"The Ultimate Fighting Championship struck a uniform deal with sports apparel company Reebok back in 2014 that initiated in July of 2015. The six year athlete uniform deal has restricted UFC competitors from landing their own sponsors for inside the octagon. Ultimately, the deal has drawn some ire from mixed martial artists within the division. Now, it would appear that the UFC’s Reebok apparel may not be selling well.
Reebok’s New York headquarters recently began pulling UFC Reebok gear off of the shelves. When asked why, it was explained that much of the UFC’s Reebok merchandise was not meeting sales expectations. These comments were made public via popular this popular MMA Forum, before MMAImports made a call to confirm much of the same."
Reebok’s New York headquarters recently began pulling UFC Reebok gear off of the shelves. When asked why, it was explained that much of the UFC’s Reebok merchandise was not meeting sales expectations. These comments were made public via popular this popular MMA Forum, before MMAImports made a call to confirm much of the same."
I clicked on it and then it drove me away from the article to the point of no return......I'll wait till the morning
Maybe this will be the beginning of the end of Reebok and independent sponsorships will come back. Condom Depot is on standby.
If this is true I think we've all been kinda waiting for this to happen. No one buys
UFC fight kits beyond the casual 10 year old girl who got her parents to get her a Ronda Rousey
jersey.
I'm sure there are exceptions but at the end of the day (channeling Max Holloway) no
demographic is buying that crap enough to justify Reebok continuing to dump money into it
UFC fight kits beyond the casual 10 year old girl who got her parents to get her a Ronda Rousey
jersey.
I'm sure there are exceptions but at the end of the day (channeling Max Holloway) no
demographic is buying that crap enough to justify Reebok continuing to dump money into it
Edit - Hate when I hit reply instead of edit.
I will never click on that site. Ever. They pump out nothing but click bait. Matter of fact, I can't prove it but I'm pretty sure that site helped model the new UG front page and social media accounts. Their tactics are nearly identical and the fighters that rep MMAimports all posted on the UG at one time (Bec Rawlings, cyborg (well, Ray Elbe), Vera, etc). Some pretty low integrity shit going on, but hey...whatever makes a buck, right.
I'm gonna take this with a massive grain of salt actually.
Reebok's "Headquarters" in New York City I'm pretty sure refers to their Reebok Crossfit Headquarters store on Fifth Avenue.
UFC merchandise being pulled from that store doesn't necessarily mean the deal is going to die, and it's hard to imagine someone publicly going on record as to why the stuff was being removed. The entire source seems to be a dude on Sherdog. It's very possible a new version of the Reebok kits will be introduced soon (the initial Reebok shirts were first fostered upon UFC fighters in July 2015, and the slightly less stupid updates came in July 2016), and the quote might have just been made up.
Still, it's pretty fucking funny. It's certainly not a good thing for the UFC and Reebok symbolically.
Reebok's "Headquarters" in New York City I'm pretty sure refers to their Reebok Crossfit Headquarters store on Fifth Avenue.
UFC merchandise being pulled from that store doesn't necessarily mean the deal is going to die, and it's hard to imagine someone publicly going on record as to why the stuff was being removed. The entire source seems to be a dude on Sherdog. It's very possible a new version of the Reebok kits will be introduced soon (the initial Reebok shirts were first fostered upon UFC fighters in July 2015, and the slightly less stupid updates came in July 2016), and the quote might have just been made up.
Still, it's pretty fucking funny. It's certainly not a good thing for the UFC and Reebok symbolically.
Joe Lauzon had some things to say regarding Reebok having gone to their headquarters
a few times. Reebok talk starts at 1hr 12 min mark
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It6ui_PXu4Y
a few times. Reebok talk starts at 1hr 12 min mark
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It6ui_PXu4Y
You know, Reebok actually could still salvage this thing, but it'd have to be radically altered. It'd take a level of commitment and creativity that they currently haven't come close to demonstrating.
1) The kits themselves need to be customized. You can't customize for 550 fighters, but they should go to gyms, talk to as many fighters as the can, and try and aim to come up with custom apparel for 100 fighters (obviously not 100 right off the bad, but maybe start with 25, and grow that number as fast as they can). The rest should also be given more options than they are currently. Some of the top stars could have more than one version of their gear. This would require hiring more designers, but I'm sure there are plenty of former indy apparel designers from places like Venum and Tapout and Dethrone who they could hire who have experience at this sort of thing.
2) Talk to the UFC and beg them to let the fighters to put one or two non-competing sponsors on their stuff. Maybe limited to a monochrome or grayscale silhouette, for aesthetic purposes. This space needs to be built into the shorts and shirt. This would engender a tremendous amount of goodwill from the fighters. It would also help tremendously with the hardcore fans who shit all over Reebok and dominate anything to do with Reebok on social media.
3) Come up with something for the cutmen and try and get the UFC to get Stitch back, even if it means that Reebok ends up sponsoring Stitch directly.
Ideally they'd need to do all of the above within the next year.
Right now the fighters fucking hate the deal, social media has nothing nice to say about it, and no one is buying this shit. Mainstream journalists who don't closely follow the sport have described it as bland, and that's generally the impression that casual fans have of the gear as well.
Other organizations who might be looking for an apparel manufacturer are obviously paying attention. If Reebok demonstrated to turn this around, it would make them look like a company that learns from their mistake and goes the extra mile to get it right. Right now they just look like incompetent idiots.
I certainly don't expect Reebok to actually salvage this dumpster fire, and they may not even make the attempt, but it'd certainly be in their best interests to try.
1) The kits themselves need to be customized. You can't customize for 550 fighters, but they should go to gyms, talk to as many fighters as the can, and try and aim to come up with custom apparel for 100 fighters (obviously not 100 right off the bad, but maybe start with 25, and grow that number as fast as they can). The rest should also be given more options than they are currently. Some of the top stars could have more than one version of their gear. This would require hiring more designers, but I'm sure there are plenty of former indy apparel designers from places like Venum and Tapout and Dethrone who they could hire who have experience at this sort of thing.
2) Talk to the UFC and beg them to let the fighters to put one or two non-competing sponsors on their stuff. Maybe limited to a monochrome or grayscale silhouette, for aesthetic purposes. This space needs to be built into the shorts and shirt. This would engender a tremendous amount of goodwill from the fighters. It would also help tremendously with the hardcore fans who shit all over Reebok and dominate anything to do with Reebok on social media.
3) Come up with something for the cutmen and try and get the UFC to get Stitch back, even if it means that Reebok ends up sponsoring Stitch directly.
Ideally they'd need to do all of the above within the next year.
Right now the fighters fucking hate the deal, social media has nothing nice to say about it, and no one is buying this shit. Mainstream journalists who don't closely follow the sport have described it as bland, and that's generally the impression that casual fans have of the gear as well.
Other organizations who might be looking for an apparel manufacturer are obviously paying attention. If Reebok demonstrated to turn this around, it would make them look like a company that learns from their mistake and goes the extra mile to get it right. Right now they just look like incompetent idiots.
I certainly don't expect Reebok to actually salvage this dumpster fire, and they may not even make the attempt, but it'd certainly be in their best interests to try.
I don't believe Lauzon's anecdote for a second that "90% of fighters I've talked to are doing the same or better" than pre-Reebok. He's a company man and directly sponsored by Reebok, so I think he's just deluding himself on the other points.
Also, about how the fighters should be more positive so as to not make this deal so toxic, and maybe try to address their complaints to the UFC instead, he's again completely deluding himself. Reebok can't fire a fighter, and fighters who complain about Reebok aren't likely to face any disciplinary action when there's hundreds of them doing so. If the UFC has a problem with this, well, as Lauzon pointed out, it's completely within their power to make things better.
Meanwhile, the very least that Reebok can do is make the fighter gear look good, which we haven't seen any evidence of so far. Tanking the deal or any new deal come contract-renewal time is in the fighters' best interests right now. If the UFC wants to actively punish the fighters by forbidding in-cage sponsors when that happens, they'll just be cutting off their nose to spite their face and in the end even more fighters will jump ship.
Yeah with all respect to Joe I did get kind of a "brown nosey" feeling. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt
cuz Joe has always shown himself to be a good guy. However when Ariel pressed him on the UFC / TV deal
and he wouldn't say whether the fighters should get a piece of the TV deal kinda rubbed me wrong.
That shoulda been a no brainer answer.... of YES
T
The Big Guy
Guest
Lifes easy for the fight night bonus king
There's no doubt where his loyalty lies, is there.
All Reebok has to do is provide the gear, with their logo. And let the rest be filled with sponsors. Right now we see only UFC and Reebok in big letters, a monotone and boring design, and weird name placing (if not mispelled as well), so called flags...
Drop the whole kit idea, they are not soccer plaers, nor in a team. They are not in the Olympics so drop those flag tags as well. Just a logo of Reebok, and UFC, small enough to leave room for actual sponsors. But I am afraid the damage is already done. Sponsors are less likely to shell out for these fighters since Reebok has driven the price into the ground. Reebok is already stigmatized.
Drop the whole kit idea, they are not soccer plaers, nor in a team. They are not in the Olympics so drop those flag tags as well. Just a logo of Reebok, and UFC, small enough to leave room for actual sponsors. But I am afraid the damage is already done. Sponsors are less likely to shell out for these fighters since Reebok has driven the price into the ground. Reebok is already stigmatized.
Ya
He makes 24k a fight and 7 grand in Reebok money twice a year after having his head smashed in for the last how many years?
if reebok and UFC had an ass Joe would be the pucker of it
First he says that he understands the deal more, and has a better picture than other fighters. I imagine he does, living 15 minutes away from the HQ. The other 99% of the fighters on the roster dont have that luxury unfortunately. Maybe they're suppose to fly in from Japan, Australia, Russia, Europe, and all parts of the US on their dime to meet w/ the Reebok execs and become better informed. I don't know.
Then he goes on to say that long story short, Reebok came to terms with the UFC for $70 mil over 6 years. And the UFC made the best deal that they thought was in the fighters best interest (i.e. the UFC negotiated on the fighters behalf w/out any involvement from the fighters or consulting with them). Joe then says the UFC assumed all of the fighters would be happy not having to chase all of the smaller sponsors (again the generous ole UFC just looking out for the fighters best interests). Now the contracts have been signed, and it can't be undone. Now all of the fighters think that complaining on social media will somehow fix the problem, and that's the wrong way to go about it. Joe says Reebok has invested $70 mil, were hoping to make a $100 or $200 million Return On Investment, but "they're not because these fighters are being negative, and now they've become so toxic that no other sponsors like Nike or Under Armour are going to want to come in" (Joe's exact words). So when this deal is over, sponsors are going to run for the hills because the fighters "ruined it for themselves" (again Joe's words). It's a backwards way of thinking according to Joe, and also unprofessional.
For the sake of this site, I'm going to refrain from commenting.