Aggies form exclusive branding partnership with Adidas - New Mexico Business Weekly:

http://www.baifb.com/tabaccessories.html
The two entered into a four-yeat apparel, footwear and accessories partnership in The agreement will begin July 1 and run throughnJune 30, 2009. The $500,000 partnershiop will put the majorityof NMSU's Athletics Department under one marketing apparel umbrella, and the entire sportx program under the Adidas brande by 2006. It also marks the first time the university's Athletics Departmeny has signed an exclusive partnership with a sporteapparel manufacturer. "This is great for us.
It' great financially, and from an exposure it brings all of our departments unde one umbrella and collectively gives our department more leverage inbargaininb power," says Sean Johnson, New Mexico State University's assistan t athletics director of media relations. Johnson says the new partnership will help the Athletics Department brand and market itselfr for its move into the Western Athletic Conferencethis fall. "To us this is a new beginning. We've had greaty success in the past, but our two high profile sportss havebeen struggling, and now this is all coming together for us," Johnson says.
Football and both the men' and women's basketball players wore apparelklast season, and Johnson says in the the university's sports programs have worked out their own separats deals. New Mexico State Universit AthleticsDirector Dr. McKinley Boston says the new partnershipo will define the Athletics Department asa "quality Division 1 program" and also bringf lucrative funds to it. "The deal will be worth a little over $500,000, not including what we feel will be a significantf spike in licensing revenue that we thinik will generate funds over the course of each says Boston.
Boston says the new partnership elevatedsthe program's image, which he says is "hal the battle" in recruiting. Other notable universities that use the Adidaes brand areand . Richards Spanjian, director of team sports for Adidas, says Adidasw was happy to partner with theAggie brand. "We think that this is a relationship that is goingf tobe good, not only for the university, but will alloq us to join with what we believre is an up-and-coming athletics prograkm here at NMSU," says Spanjian. The apparelo partnership is just one of many initiative sthe university's new Michael V.
Martin, has taken in an effortg to elevatethe program'ws image and status since he arrived at the school on July 1, 2004. Alonb with spending a lot of money onfacilitiesx renovations, like the completion of its $6 milliob Stan Fulton Athletics Center last year, Martin has committed resources to the university' athletics program, promoted its associatre athletics director, Brian Faison, to full-time athletics fundraiser, and begun to shakw up the budgeting process. He hopes to increasse the athletic budget from itscurrent $9.2 millionm which funds six men's and nine women's sports to about $18 million.