The National Football League is exploring opening up its apparel licenses to other manufacturers. The rights are currently held by Reebok in a deal that ends at the close of next season. According to a report in Sports Business Journal, categories such as on-field, youth, headwear and performance will be broken out into their own distinct categories that would be available to new licensees.
Reebok has held most of the league's apparel rights since 2000, though it sublicenses many of them out. Under the reported new arrangement, the league will be the one to sublicense. The league's business ventures committee will meet Sept. 14 in New York to hear recommendations from the league office on up to 10 league wide apparel license proposals. If approved, owners could vote on at their meeting in Chicago on Oct. 12. Ownership approval would be required for the league to could then go to market with their plans.
“We are certainly going to slice and dice more,” Wayne Weaver, the Jacksonville Jaguars owner and chairman of the business ventures committee, told the Sports Business Journal.
