Manhattan High is now officially an Adidas school, thanks to a sponsorship deal with the brand, approved unanimously by the USD 383 school board on April 15.
Under the five-year contract, USD 383 will exclusively wear Adidas uniforms for Varsity sports and allow Adidas to use the MHS name and trademarks in marketing. In exchange, Manhattan High School will receive discounts for Adidas products and an allowance towards Adidas merchandise.
“The first year, we’re going to be able to use a couple $100,000 towards purchases of uniforms for our kids and apparel for our coaches,” MHS athletic director Michael Marsh said. “And that’s going to reap a huge benefit and take some of the stress off of fundraising for our coaches.”
It isn’t just Varsity squads that will be getting nicer uniforms than before.
“What the plan will be is we’ll roll our current Varsity uniforms down to our J.V. and Freshman teams, depending on what program we’re talking about,” Marsh said. “But that’s the plan right now, and so everybody’s going to get an upgrade of uniforms.”
According to USD 383 assistant superintendent Nathan Downs who facilitated the deal, Adidas approached MHS about a sponsorship this fall, but conversations were put on pause for several months.
“When Mr. Marsh announced his retirement [in November], we determined to put everything on hold,” Downs said. “And when we hired our new individual for the athletic director position, that’s when we took it back up to determine if it was going to be feasible or not.”
Downs and others made sure to do their homework before moving forward with the deal.
“We reached out to several different athletic directors throughout the state and in the country to look at what kind of deals they were receiving, not just from Adidas, but from other brands as well,” Downs said.
Marsh said that successes of the Manhattan Indians football team and their head coach Joe Schartz over the last few years “first motivated” Adidas’ desire to sponsor MHS.
Marsh is still in the process of meeting with fall sports coaches, but once parameters are established for ordering new uniforms, football will be first in line for an upgrade.
“We’re waiting on some mock jerseys and uniforms right now,” Marsh said. “…And we’re waiting for some fitting kits so kids can try on jerseys.”
The new set of football uniforms will include one that is designed under the branding of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“That will be very unique to Manhattan High School,” Downs said. “Patrick Mahomes’ branding is finding elite high school programs throughout the country in order to wear his specific moniker through the Adidas branding.”
After football is taken care of, MHS volleyball, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls basketball, as well as baseball and softball will be the next up for a refresh. The rest of the plan is to be determined.
“We’ll see where the dollars land after that,” Marsh said. “And then we’ll take those things on as they come, as the next year approaches.”
Safe to say players and coaches alike are looking forward to the new drip.
“I [am] pretty excited about getting new jerseys,” sophomore linebacker Liam Nider said. “That’s one thing I’m looking forward to. [This year’s] were kind of baggy. Didn’t look too good in it, but hopefully this year’s look good.”
