Boston College Athletics announces apparel deal with New Balance

The Under Armour era at BC is over as Boston College has announced a 10-year deal with Boston-based New Balance to outfit “30 of BC’s 31 varsity teams” (every team except for football).

Sports Business Journal and the Boston Globe have reported further on the announcement and claim the deal is worth $45 million over 10 years, the largest in school history.

The move is a key part of New Balance’s push into the basketball market. They have had a limited presence in the NBA and in college basketball, but made headlines by signing Kawhi Leonard to an apparel deal and have been ramping up their presence in the basketball shoe market in recent years.

The Globe reports that BC’s hockey apparel will come through Warrior, a well-established hockey brand that is a subsidiary of New Balance. This is a much better fit than Under Armour, so good news on the hockey front - and probably lacrosse, too, since Warrior is established within lax as well.

With football not being a part of this deal, we will see where BC lands. SBJ notes that football uniforms could theoretically come from elsewhere and be branded as New Balance, but there are also rumors BC could sign a football-specific deal with a company like Adidas.

With New Balance being right down the street from BC in Brighton, it makes sense that the early announcements are playing up the local ties:

This has the potential to be an exciting new partnership for BC, though skeptics will note that no other “power conference” programs are affiliated with New Balance currently.

But hey, being a trailblazer can be a good thing. This has the potential to be an exciting partnership, especially as New Balance continues to grow its brand.

Now we get to look forward to the rollout of new uniforms!

More information on this will be shared as it becomes available.