UFC & Reebok Sponsorship Deal - The Ripples

Sneak preview of what might be the UFC-Reebok future

A couple of days ago, at a highly anticipated press conference, the UFC announced an important and somewhat secretive 6-year contract with Reebok to outfit all UFC fighters and events. The word that was frequently seen in reports was the "uniform" that the fighters have to don whilst on the fight event, as well as event week. Erm, does that mean we don't get to see our favourite brands and designs?

At first glance, it seems so. This sponsorship deal effectively means that all UFC representatives would now be wearing Reebok gear albeit some amount of customisation. I don't know about others, but at second glance, Reebok...? They will need some serious serious design power house to make them cool again.

My last memories of a cool Reebok remained at the Pumps era. Since then, I've admittedly walked into a Reebok factory outlet hoping that they've magically become cooler. But as far as I can remember, they remained largely boring and I remained largely, unexcited.

But now comes UFC, with all of its glory, gory, lights, actions, and cool factor. Before this sponsorship deal, the UFC sponsors were made up of a few prominent brands (think Muscle Pharm, Hayabusa, Affliction etc), and some not very prominent brands (think Dynamic Fasteners). But regardless, the UFC opened up a niche-but-not-really-niche avenue for sponsors to get their brand in, rumoured to be at a relatively low cost too. Suffice to say, prior to the Reebok-UFC deal, MMA sponsors were actually getting a bang for their buck.

I'm not going to over analyse the situation and give you charts and bars of data and money signs. Instead, let's look at the more localised problems.

Apparels (especially T-shirts) Sponsors

Seriously, almost all UFC fighters walks out with a T-shirt sponsor. You might be familiar with some of them such as Hayabusa, Torque, Affliction, Bad Boy, Venum, Dethrone, etc. Some of these brands have also ventured into MMA/Boxing gears of their own, and have reaped moolahs. I know for a fact that in Singapore, Hayabusa gloves sells at a premium over the Thai brands.

Now imagine, no more walk-out tees from your favourite fighter's brand. It will now, be replaced by a Reebok tee. Where will your loyalty lie now? The fighter or the brand?

Do a simple search on Google, and it's not hard to find a consolidated response page from the current T-shirt brands. Some were obviously unhappy, but others chose to stick by the fighters. But to be honest, having your greatest source of exposure (PPV events, press conferences, training videos, etc) removed can't be good at all right? If it was up to me, I think i'd spend my remaining contractual period left milking out what's left before Jul 2015, and after that sell a bunch of those leftovers as memorabilia.

Heard uniform announcement coming tomorrow. We were never about all looking the same. We'll stay that way, thanks. #goodluckreebok
— Dethrone Royalty (@dethrone) December 2, 2014

Torque will continue to support our #UFC fighters as well as our team in all extreme sports! @UrijahFaber @tjlavin @jbmma155 @AnthonyNapo
— Torque (@Torque1net) December 2, 2014

Retailers/Vendors

In Singapore, there are a couple of online retailers that have profited from the rise of MMA popularity. These retailers were able to either obtain distributorship, or stock these MMA apparels at wholesale prices from the usual brands. Now that the landscape is changing, I honestly don't think that Reebok would distribute these MMA shirts out for these online retailers.

INSTEAD, think World of Sports, Royal Sporting House selling MMA gears and tees!

I'm no retailer, and these are just my thoughts, but I would think that the Reebok deal would hurt the revenues of these retailers by a significant amount; so much so, that I think a new strategy might be necessary to keep these businesses afloat.

Again, I am no retailer, but if we look back at say, sneakers. There is actually a viable and sustainable market doing niche product lines. Let's imagine, a shopfront that sells exclusively, MMA stuffs. I don't mean gears or apparels, but STUFFS; posters, gloves, figurines, t-shirts, shorts, etc. I promise, i will be a regular customer there. Better if you're able to obtain exclusive franchise of UFC merchandise from Dana White! Worth considering if you have a couple of million inside your bedside drawer.

So? Your point being?

Most of the time, change seem like an adversity to people, and the Reebok-UFC deal is a huge change. I'd dare say that the top guns at UFC must have had done their number crunching. For starters, a layman like me would be very interested to see our RSH and Sportslink selling MMA merchandise. Naturally, it signifies an increased outreach.

But it irks me to see that all UFC athletes would be "One-Brand". In the NBA, the players all wear the same team uniform. But hey, at least they have different shoes, and because of this, it laid out the possibility of big brands like Nike, Adidas, to think hard about their design. When the uniform is uniform, people do pay attention to the supple differences (shoes in the case of basketball, or soccer).

But last i heard, MMA fighters are bare footed. Maybe start designing ankle guards?