Tennessee and Adidas announced a landmark partnership on Thursday afternoon, paving the way for a new era in the Vols’ uniform and apparel for the next decade. After 10 years spent with Nike, Tennessee will be returning to Adidas starting on July 1, 2026, across the entire athletics department.
Based on several reports that came out on Wednesday, it looks clear that Adidas is prioritizing its partnership with Tennessee in a fundamentally bigger way than Nike did. And why wouldn’t it? Tennessee is a prominent school across the college landscape and is the only Power Four program to have reached the postseason in all 20 varsity programs in each of the last two years. Tennessee is a worldwide brand, and it appears that Adidas is going to be prioritizing it from a marketing and financial perspective.
When the news broke on Wednesday, the immediate reaction was mixed. Things cooled down by the end of the day, certainly, but some in the fanbase are naturally going to be upset with moving away from the iconic “swoosh,” no matter the price.
One of the reasons why is the uniform conversation, mainly for football and basketball. Adidas has plenty of great uniforms across the college landscape, but there are some more troubling ones out there, too. Some online expressed their concern that Tennessee’s uniforms will be hit with a big downgrade when the move to Adidas happens.
Fear not, though.
According to Volquest’s Grant Ramey and Brent Hubbs, Tennessee will have creative control when it comes to the uniforms. Tennessee Athletic Director Danny White said so himself in an interview with Volquest this week.
“… We have creative control, but they have talented creative people. We have talented creative people. I think that anytime you’re a priority for someone, I think that there’s more opportunity for ideation and thinking about how do we continue to have our foot on the pedal in terms of innovation. But we will always make sure we’re honoring our traditions and Adidas knows how important that is,” White said, via VQ.
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This won’t be a situation where Tennessee hands over the Pantone 151 color palette, sits on its hands, and waits to see what Adidas sends them as the final product. This appears to be a fully collaborative effort, but certainly one that Tennessee will have plenty of say in.
That’s a huge aspect of this deal, and something that may calm some of the nerves from those on the fence about things within the Tennessee fanbase. While not every uniform design from Tennessee in the Danny White era has been a universal hit, it’s certainly been on the right side of things way more often. Tennessee has introduced the all-black Dark Mode uniforms and four different iterations of the Smokey Grey uniforms in the last four years, which shows just how creative the Vols’ team is.
Perhaps Tennessee uses this chance to bring back some vintage elements, such as the black outline around the orange numbers on the Vols’ away football uniforms. Heck, maybe they even bring back the oversized numbers. Maybe the changes are simply just minimal. The possibilities are endless around what Tennessee and Adidas might do in the future, but VQ’s report about UT’s creative control is nothing short of noteworthy in an era where fans are able to voice their opinions anytime and anywhere.
For a look at what Adidas has done with other programs around the country, check out RTI’s breakdown here.
