Indian Creek teams up with Adidas

WINTERSVILLE -- The Indian Creek High School Athletics Department is teaming up with Adidas to provide new duds to players in an exclusive deal.

Athletic Director Greg Stagani said a partnership was formed with Adidas and supplier BSN Sports that will benefit student-athletes and athletic programs while strengthening the school's athletic brand. Stagani added that he contacted BSN Sports officials, who then initiated contact with Adidas and made the plan a reality.

Officials formally signed a contract that will provide athletes with jerseys while the Adidas name will be prominently displayed for promotion on social media and in related venues.

So far, the boys' soccer and track teams, the latter of which includes cross country and indoor track, have uniforms on the way bearing school and brand logos, and Stagani expects more teams to get on board in the foreseeable future.

"I think it goes to the fact that everybody’s a family here, and I personally like uniformity," he explained. "It gives our coaches and athletes a chance to be uniform across the board. If you look around the school, you’ll see people wearing Adidas apparel. When you come Friday night to a football game, you’ll see it displayed on the stadium videoboard the entire time. It also gives us the opportunity to get discounts for the kids with the athletic department and for the coaches to make sure that they’re uniformed in Adidas."

He said the change will not occur overnight but will be noticeable over the next few years.

"They’ve done a really good job between Adidas and BSN of giving us the freedom to be in what we have right now," he said. "I don’t think that we’ve had a specific brand across all sports. When I sat down and met with all the coaches about it, they seemed pretty excited. They like seeing all the cool stuff that we’re getting in the building, and when they buy stuff its exciting for the kids to see. It's something for them to be proud of at the end of the day–that we have a brand attached to our name now in athletics–and you’re going to start to see it around the school. It's a credit to the coaches who want to be on board with something like this, for the kids."

Stagani has been in talks with other team coaches and said interest was growing.

"I’ve had some really good conversations with all of the coaches about it. The conversations we’ve had with BSN, Adidas, and all other parties have been extremely productive with the amount of savings provided to our department," he continued. "In general, it alleviates a lot of pressure on the athletic department to make sure that everybody has the same thing. When I got hired, that was a big goal--to find something that people could be proud of and something that brought excitement. Based on the response, it seemed like a no-brainer to try to make sure we had something for the kids."

Apparel also has been sold through a new online store, indicating similar interest among the public. Stagani said the partnership concept was not a new one, but it was not common in the area.

"There are there are some other schools around that have done it, but hopefully we’re the leader in this whole thing."

For more information or to learn about sponsorship opportunities, contact Stagani at (740) 264-1163, Ext. 2025, or email him at greg.stagani@iclsd.org.