Goodbye Umbro. Hello Adidas.

By: Inara | August 10th, 2009

This morning, Lyon announced on their official website that they had terminated their contract with Noel Soccer and by extension, with Umbro as well (Noel Soccer is the French supplier of Umbro). I guess this news isn’t too surprising, given that Umbro was bought by Nike almost two years ago.

Still, the general impression was that Lyon would see out their contract with Umbro, which was set to end June 2013. Lyon even signed an extension back in 2007. But I guess money talks, so Lyon have decided to prematurely end their contract (surely there is some kind of financial penalty…?) in order to sign a ten year contract with Adidas, one that is presumably worth more money.

Sniff sniff. I will miss the familiar double diamond.

However, Lyon will see out the 2009/2010 season in their current Umbro kits, so I recommend all of you buy the cool looking navy blue jersey before next May. The Adidas kits won’t come into effect until the 2010/2011 season.

I guess this news will make some people happy. In the world of football kits, Nike and Adidas are like Coke and Pepsi. You pretty much like one or the other, and though you might have strong reasons for your choice, it’s incomprehensible to someone else. But then you have those other soft drinks, the ones which carry unique brands and can’t be found in every store. Many people don’t even know they exist, but they fulfill the needs of a specific niche in society. That’s Umbro.

Umbro is a small brand, a good one, but it wasn’t expanding fast enough to keep up with the likes of Nike and Adidas. Which is too bad because I rather liked having Lyon a part of the small and exclusive Umbro family (Lyon are the only team in France across all divisions to sport their logo). Plus I like a lot of their designs, and it’s nice to be different from the other teams, which tend to follow Adidas/Nike templates.

Which is why I’m not thrilled about this latest move by Lyon. I guess the fact that it’s a better deal is a good thing, but I’ve never particularly admired Adidas (or Nike) when it comes to their design skills. But I guess we’ll have to wait for the new-look Lyon next summer to cast our verdict.