Tennessee Football enters a new era on Thursday with the Adidas partnership officially going live on July 2. The Vols have been a Nike-branded athletics department since 2015, but are now switching back to Adidas for all uniforms and merchandise for the next 10 years.
As Tennessee fans anxiously await the uniform and merchandise unveiling, we now have a reported timeline about when major Adidas-related events will occur.
According to Voice of the Vols Mike Keith on the Mike Keith show, July 2nd is the official switch and July 10th will be the first day that the Adidas merchandise goes live in-store.
So what about the uniforms?
As reported by Adam Sparks of the Knoxville News Sentinel on Wednesday, Tennessee has a multi-day rollout planned for the uniforms from July 6 to July 9. Sparks’ reporting states that orange uniforms will be revealed on July 6, followed by white uniforms on July 7, Summitt Blue women’s uniforms on July 8, and Dark Mode football uniforms on July 9.
Additionally, Sparks’ reporting states that the Smokey Grey uniform design will be released at a later date.
It’ll be vital to stay tuned to Tennessee Athletics’ different social media accounts for the first looks, but Rocky Top Insider will also have you covered throughout the week with every unveiling from the Vols.
“We’re fortunate, had a partner that wanted to make us their flagship school,” Tennessee HC Josh Heupel said about the switch to Adidas last August. “That’s going to happen in a lot of different ways and going to be a benefit to our football program. But this athletic department as a whole too. Had an opportunity to come talk to some other guys and I think everybody’s really excited that, again, we’re going to be the flagship school for them and it’s going to provide a lot of unique opportunities for our players both on and off the field.”
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While we don’t know exactly what Tennessee’s uniforms will look like, we have seen some football practice uniforms leaked by players in the last few weeks. Tennessee safety Qua Moss and WR Tyreek King both posted pictures of the practice jerseys to their social media accounts last month, which featured the iconic three-stripe design.
“I love it,” Tennessee WR Mike Matthews said about the new partnership back in August. “I mean, they’re pretty making us a priority, just in terms of just football and having us being like, pretty much just a college household name of sports. The connection with Adidas is major.”
Tennessee previously partnered with Adidas from 1995-2015 during a stretch that saw Tennessee football win the 1998 National Championship and the Lady Vols’ basketball program win National Championships in 1996, 97, 98, 2007 and 08. Tennessee made the switch to Nike beginning July 1, 2015, and wore the famous swoop while winning the 2024 College World Series.
It’s an exciting time for the Tennessee athletics department and the fanbase, and the Vols’ multi-day rollout will give plenty of talking points and content for UT fans to sift through next week.
