adidas Getting out of Lacrosse?

This is somewhat old news, but it’s not going to get any more fresh the longer I wait, right? And yes, it killed me for the post title to start with a lowercase letter.

With Michigan’s athletic department the beneficiary of an apparel contract with adidas, their foray into the lacrosse world had been a Big Deal for the Michigan Lacrosse program. The German manufacturer made Michigan its most prominently-displayed program for lacrosse advertising, even though Notre Dame – another adidas school, this one with a varsity lacrosse program – was also available (though their current site features more Notre Dame imagery than Michigan).

Adidas Evolve Advertisement Featuring Michigan

So down the road, it may be significant to the Wolverines if this rumor comes to fruition:

TheKyleDevitte @LaxAllStars nothing huge to report. Big rumor is that adidas is getting out of lax; they’re selling stuff here for pennies on the dollar.

(HT: 412 Lax) That report came from the LaxCon event in Baltimore at the end of January (DeVitte covers lacrosse for several outlets). From the sounds of it, that means equipment, not necessarily cleats and apparel. I’ve followed up with Kyle, and will update when I get a response – though it’s worth noting that the Irish are wearing new 2011 model adidas gear this season.

I certainly don’t have the audacity to say that Michigan potentially going varsity has enough power to save adidas’s lacrosse brand, but someone with knowledge of the Wolverines’ varsity lacrosse proposal did forward me this key sentence when I asked him about adidas’s lacrosse brand:

adidas is pursuing an organic growth strategy to enter the market, and has chosen to tie the success of their brand with that of Michigan lacrosse.

So… maybe? (Also tying a brand to “Michigan destroying the club lacrosse world” was probably a pretty good idea over the last couple years) It remains to be seen whether the Wolverines will even announce a Division-1 program, and whether Michigan and Notre Dame – even with all their brand cachet (easily the two biggest Q-ratings in college athletics, with the likes of Duke and USC not far behind) – can save the three-striped ones.

Stay tuned.