for the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit, May 6-8 in Palm Springs.
If Adidas is promoting Manchester United, perhaps it doesn’t want to also advertise one of its biggest rivals.
Earlier this year, Adidas won the rights away from Nike to sell branded Man U gear in a massive $1.3 billion deal for 10 years. The rollout has finally started in its online store, beginning with these throwback track jackets and pants.
There’s just one problem.
An eagle-eyed Twitter user noticed something unusual about the pants:
Mess up by Adidas! Retro United tracksuit. No problem about that but shame the guy is wearing retro Chelsea pants! pic.twitter.com/9P5OHSVPEK
— Andrew Yee (@andrewyee) October 12, 2015
The pants are stitched with a Chelsea Football Club logo, an arch competitor of Man U. The “cock-up” is somewhat understandable since Adidas is also Chelsea’s official sponsor, but it’s unlikely a fan of either of those teams will mix and match an outfit like this.
Needless to say, die-hard soccer fans weren’t pleased:
Man U jacket with Chelsea track pants. Fire the stylist. @adidasoriginals pic.twitter.com/K1C6T70i3S
— ebun. (@mrLBF) October 13, 2015
@ManUtd there is something wrong with this marketing https://t.co/WQIaz187Oe #checkthetrousers #mufc #notCFC
— Ken Huang (@kenhuang7) October 8, 2015
Adidas pulled the listing offline and it with the same model wearing matching Man U pants.
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