Talked to a manager of the basketball team, and John Groce HATES Russell, and has been trying to switch when he can.  The manager said that Nike will be the new supplier. What does everyone think?

I've boycotted Nike since The Decision.. I give team gear exceptions because forces bigger than one player are at work.

Doesn't Nike have some sort of cast sytem where the amount of wins determines how much effort they put into your account or something? or is that just for football? Either way, the logo on the uniform doesn't matter to me unless the new company is going to step up and doing something special to raise OHIO's profile.

Agreed completely.  I'd be more interested if some company is going to "outfit" those folks in the south who lost everything including loved ones.  Team uniforms a concern?  You've got to be kidding me.

Im assuming this is a basketball only move to Nike, correct?  Considering that we have a history of getting new uniforms every 2 years, we are due for a new set this upcoming season.

OK, somebody else broached the subject, so I'm going to chime in.  I realize this is at best an unsubstantiated rumor, but I don't want us going to Nike (while fully aware we get our shoes from them).  If you don't care about uniforms, that's fine, but I think most of us care a little bit.  We comment on uniforms.  We like good ones.  It's nice to see the better ones, and the bad ones are a bit embarrassing (Houston Astros, anyone?).

I know that all the major shoe companies employ questionable labor standards, and I'm being charitable with that statement.  But Nike stands out as the symbol of unfair, unsafe labor in this industry, and I would rather not be associated with it.  I aspire for us to search for greater things.  I know we'll never turn away all these companies, so I'll settle for not joining forces with the standard bearer.

And from an aesthetic standpoint, their uniforms are boring and cookie cutter.  That, to me, goes against the spirit of our fine university.

I find this hard to believe, but I share Monroe's sentiments.  I hope Groce isn't investing more emotion in "hating" Russell than he is in hating the way his team plays defense.

Nike has the best product.  They have the widest range of variety in shoes, clothing and equipment.  Their design team usually sets the trends in that industry.  Hopefully, this also adds to the merchandising for official Bobcat logo gear.  I probably have 30 Russell items with the logo on them and they all look the same.  The one Nike polo is the only thing I have that looks trendy and unique.  I have no doubt that if this happens, merchandising revenues will increase.  in my mind, that is a good enough reason to make a change.   

My personal preference is Under Armour mostly because of the wear characteristics and the studies my friend Dr Dave Pascoe has done on heat regulation in their materials. If you look at Auburn's unis they are very very nice fromthe wearers standpoint.

As for Nike and Adidas ....TOmmy has played on teams sponsored by the big 3 , Indiana Elite was Adidas and put tons of money back into the kids and the programs. Reebok Products were horrible and put lots of money into COnely Sr's pockets and THe Nike stuff seemed to last longer and be of better quality.

When I was taking care of the Ball State kids we had 24 of 28 pairs of Nike shoes blow sidewalls out in 1991, when I called Beaverton and identified my self as a team physician with a question for quality control the simple reply was...."we don't have anything like that".... and I spent the next 6 months trying to get those shoes not only replaced but trying to find out at what level to confer on shoe design and quality. It was not until we got together as a group within the College of Sportsmedicine and starting commenting from a united front that we started to get some answers.

At this point if we go with Nike I am going to be happy as the Russell stuff looks nice and feels good but pales in comparison to what Nike is putting out. withj regard to materials and variety.  After years of wearing Adidas gear and shoes I feel like they have dropped off a bit in quality and innovation. As for recruits ....I have had several recruits tell me they like our stuff way better than Miami's Adidas gear and the array of gear we have got from Russell is nice in it's varieiety of styles. Whether we would get the polos, warm ups and the like from Nike is unknown. Unfortuante what the recruits think is germaine but it is . ANyone notice the Bulls in Adidas now that Reggie Rose and Derrick are there?

I don't really understand this whole milieu so I just stay out of it.  I will say I agree with giacomo that there has got to be a happy medium with the shorts. 

Have any opinion on their shoes, Doc? The UA shoes are all very asymmetric in appearance and (I assume) support. Don't really seem to be catching on for anything but their baseball/FB spikes. Unclear if there is an uglier shoe than the red/green UA midtop that Brandon Jennings pimps.

Don't think that being wrong on something like that brings mental capacity into question. 

your an idiot....just saying.