On past tournament weekends, the Northern Kentucky University golf team faced two battles. One battle is the game itself. The grinding, the putting and the concentration involved in striking the ball in the right spot on the club.

The second battle was in the hotel after the round, where the team would have to decide if they wanted to wash their uniforms for the next day, or try and play in the same uniform they played in the day before.

That changes Friday, when the deal between NKU and adidas officially begins. The deal makes the Portland, Washington based company the official provider of footwear, apparel, and accessory brand of the university.

Leslie Fields, NKU’s associate athletic director for compliance and athletic administration, has been an adviser for the golf team and has witnessed the struggle first hand.

“Tournaments are usually four days long and in the past we’ve only been able to give them two or three shirts and no pairs of shorts,” Fields said. “They’ve had to do laundry in the hotel.”

The team also had to purchase their own golf shoes, as the athletic department could not provide them any.

Every member of the team had also only been allotted one bag during their NKU careers.

“When you take them through airports and all the rounds of golf they get really beat up,” Fields said.

The agreement between NKU and adidas surpasses any clothing contract in school history.

“This is the most comprehensive apparel deal in school history,” said Bryan McEldowney, NKU assistant athletic director for communication and media. “At the end of the day, we could outfit all 17 programs, 250 athletes, and every sport with adidas.”

This means the golf team will no longer have to do laundry in the hotel room, and won’t have to buy their own shoes, golf balls, and will be able to replace their beaten down bags.

“We will have four shirts and four pairs of shorts for the golfers now,” Fields said. “We are also getting them duffle and travel bags for this season. I’m just so excited to give our kids what they need and not have to use their own money to buy what we expect them to have.

“We get to show off a little”

While the deal is huge step up from the previous deal with Nike, Fields had some initial doubts about the deal and how student athletes would respond.

“I was worried. I don’t think adidas is the ‘coolest’ brand,” Fields said. “Young people think Nike or Under Armour are cooler, at least that’s the perception. So some athletes were like ‘really?’ Our budget hasn’t changed, but what we get for our money is so much more. Once athletes get here and see how much they get they will think this is way better.”

NKU will get a 50 percent discount on all apparel according to Dan McIver, senior associate athletic director of business and finance. The student athletes will also have access to any product adidas has in the catalog, which is a change from the previous deal with Nike.

“We did not have full access to Nike’s full product line,” McIver said. “We could only get access to a certain number of products. In reality, our deal was no better than what local high schools can get. With adidas, any product they make we have access to. For us that’s important.”

While McEldowney acknowledges there are some restrictions to the deal, he is excited about the opportunity his student athletes have right now.

“In most instances we are not going to be able to provide everything, but we will be able to provide a heck of a lot more than we did in the past. The partnership allows for that,” McEldowney said. “We have more flexibility and anytime you can make an improvement in that aspect, it’s big.”