Some Sooner teams switch to MJordan
NORMAN — Back in his home state a day before the Los Angeles Clippers’ Friday night game against the Thunder, former Oklahoma basketball star Blake Griffin made a pit-stop at his old stomping grounds.
And he brought presents.
Carrying a folded up white T-shirt, Griffin made the rounds of Sooner practices, stopping by football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball.
At each stop, Griffin
stood in front of the team and welcomed them to a new family — the Jordan Brand family.
“The real reason I’m here is because you guys are about to be a part of a bigger family,” he said as he unfolded the T-shirt to reveal “WE ARE JORDAN” in crimson block letters.
While the Sooners will continue to be a Nike school, the football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball will be wearing Jordan Brand uniforms, replacing Nike’s trademark Swoosh logo with a miniature dunking Michael Jordan silhouette on the jerseys.
Jordan Brand is produced by Nike, and Griffin has been a Jordan Brand athlete since signing an endorsement with the company in 2012.
OU’s switch will take place at the start of the 2018-19 football season, and Jordan Brand Oklahoma merchandise will be available for purchase May 1, 2018.
The Sooners will be the third football team to wear the Jumpman logo, joining Michigan and North Carolina.
That exclusivity will likely be a huge pull in recruiting, and potential recruits started buzzing about the change as soon as it was announced.
It also got rave reviews from former and current student-athletes.
“Constantly getting reminded I made a great decision #Jumpman #JsOnMyFeet,” graduate transfer wide receiver Jeff Badet tweeted Thursday night.
The uniform shift, which likely won’t greatly alter the uniforms, is just another way that firstyear head coach Lincoln Riley is leaving his mark on the program without veering too far away from Sooner traditions.
The Sooners have been dropping hints about a potential change for a couple months, beginning with a cryptic hint from Riley at a preseason speaking engagement in August.
One fan asked Riley if he was going to keep the traditional uniforms.
“How do we want to answer this?” Riley said, according to the Norman Transcript’s account of the event. “Is (OU athletic director) Joe Castiglione in the room right now?
“We’ve got some good plans, I’ll put it that way. We’ve got some good plans.”
The move gives Oklahoma the opportunity to explore different alternate looks, although Riley doesn’t expect to make big changes to the iconic uniforms.
“I don’t see myself wanting to go crazy,” Riley said recently. “I don’t think we’ll have silver helmets at any point or at any point in the near future. I can see us maybe having our one deal and we’ll work with Joe (Castiglione) and our administration at some point if we ever branch out and find something that’s comfortable for everybody that’s new and fun and
honors the traditions that it has to.”
Michigan football became the first program to wear the Jumpman logo, rolling out those uniforms beginning with the 2016 season.
UNC football jumped on board with Jordan Brand in an announcement earlier this year and debuted new uniforms in August.
Michigan signed a lucrative deal with Nike in 2016 for $173.8 million, running through at least 2027.
UNC was in the midst of a 10-year, $37.7 million deal with Nike signed in 2009 when it announced the partnership with Jordan Brand, but it’s expected to finalize a new deal in the near future.
OU’s Nike deal was worth $3.4 million for the 2015-16 school year, but an extension reached in 2014 increased that to $5.2 million annually.
Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook is also a Jordan Brand athlete, and he extended his deal through the 2025-26 season earlier this year.