In the past at Seton Hill University (SHU), we have had different brands representing our sports teams. With 21 sports teams at SHU, one might have noticed the division of unity in regards to the make of the apparel student-athletes and coaches wear. Whether it has been Nike, Adidas or even Puma, SHU sports teams have seemed to be scattered without an exact name to their gear.
However, it has been officially announced by the institution that all Griffins athletic sports teams will be changing to Under Armour beginning in the fall of next semester.
“The switch to Under Armour and BSN sports (who serves as our UA provider among athletic equipment) was a long time in the making,” said Christopher Snyder, the Athletics Executive Director for Athletic Programs, “The driving factor in making this decision was to bring uniformity to all of our programs.”
In addition to the brand change, the SHU athletic program will ensure that all sports teams are using the exact colors and shades of our university.
Snyder, who has been here at SHU for 23 years now, said, “We simply have too many different shades of red, gold and other colors throughout our uniforms and we need to have one singular identity.”
Under Armour started in 1996 with Kevin Plank, a 23-year-old special teams football captain who attended the University of Maryland. Plank would balance all the duties of a student-athlete, while also working from his grandmother’s basement in Washington DC’s Georgetown neighborhood. This is the reason why the Under Armour headquarters reside in Baltimore.
This entrepreneur guru would travel the streets selling this revolutionary new product out of the trunk of his car. What started as a small business at first is now globally known as a billion dollar company according to USA today.
“Under Armour and BSN have provided us with very favorable pricing and an incentive package to help us control costs that will ultimately benefit our student-athletes and our staff,” said Snyder.
Excited about bringing more pride to our school, Snyder knows that this sudden change will not happen overnight.
“Unlike Division I programs, we simply do not have the resources to mandate all new uniforms in one year for all of our programs; and because we are not a “national brand” major vendors, such as UA, are not going to outfit all of our programs at virtually no cost to us,” said Snyder.
You might be wondering what will happen to the existing brands that we currently sell at the SHU Bookstore. According to bookstore employees Amy Biller and Shannon Davis, “We will focus more on Under Armor while we will continue to provide other brands and include price point selected items. However, we are excited with the change to Under Armor and have noticed that it is quite cheaper than other brands we’ve had in the past.”
Snyder predicts it will take two or three years for all of our teams to make the conversion to full Under Armour. In the meantime though, get ready for SHU to bring back our unison on the map.
Published By: Laramie Cowan