Chapter Twelve: Three stripes for the blue and white

When the Ateneo Blue Eagles took to the Araneta Coliseum hardcourt for their first game of the year, there was a slight yet very noticeable change in the team’s uniforms – the lining around the neck and nape area and in the sides of the jersey and the trunks was colored black.

For the first time in 83 years of Ateneo basketball, the team had another color in their uniform outside the traditional blue and white. Technically, the 2008 Blue Eagles weren’t the first Ateneo varsity team to wear a different color.

The 1985-86 Ateneo baseball team wore gray and white and the color motif lasted a couple of seasons before reverting back to the traditional.

And 23 years after the landmark or rogue varsity team depending on which side of the spectrum one may comment, Ateneo was in the black.

The partnership between Ateneo and worldwide athletic apparel giant adidas was first explored in 2002. At that time, the team wore the Swoosh of Nike although the contract with the Portland, Oregon-based company was set to expire after the season.

In the meantime, adidas Philippines’ Managing Director John Alonte, an Ateneo alumnus and die-hard fan of the Blue Eagles inquired about the possibility of sponsoring the team.

Then University VP for Planning Fr. Tito Caluag S.J. told Alonte to go pitch his proposal.

Recalled Alonte, “Normally, any plans for the current year’s line of apparel is planned 18 months before. That is so because it gives enough time for the sourcing of materials, for the product designs to be approved, and for the manufacturing of the actual products. But in this particular case, we also had to seek the approval of Germany.”

Previous to the Ateneo pitch, adidas was embroiled in a disastrous PBA undertaking that had cost the company several millions of pesos. Because of that, any new sponsorship needed the Head Office’s imprimatur.

Alonte took two visiting HQ Executives, Juergen Straffe, Vice President for Marketing, and Max Van Den Dole, the Sports Marketing Head to an Ateneo game at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Big Dome was filled to the bleacher seats and three-fourths of the assemblage wore blue. And although the Blue Eagles lost the match, the visiting executives came away visibly impressed.

“Up to now,” recounted the local adidas head of that fateful day that swung a “yes” vote for the Ateneo sponsorship, “I can still remember their comment: Straffe said, ‘I’ve seen a lot of events and the electricity reminds me so much of the World Cup.’”

There were a lot of considerations for the three stripes to be associated with Ateneo and on every level the two matched the footwear giant’s sports values. But it was an expensive undertaking; one that forced adidas to temporarily drop their sponsorship of other teams.
“With the basketball team as our anchor, we carefully choose our athletes by the values they espouse,” explained Odette Velarde, the footwear giant’s Marketing Communications Manager. “We believe that Ateneo and adidas are a perfect match.”

Whereas before it was only the Juniors team of Enrico Villanueva that was initially sponsored, the partnership now encompassed every varsity team of the Ateneo.

In 2006, Toti Wong, Group Product Manager of adidas Philippines attended a global marketing meeting in the medieval town of Herzogenaurach, Germany where the headquarters of adidas and its rival company Puma are located. The other countries were presenting their stories on how they become the number one athletic brand in their country through licensed apparel. “The most important ingredient was a team which had the most passionate fans,” recalled Wong who instantly thought of his alma mater, Ateneo. “And when we were bidding to renew our sponsorship of the whole Ateneo sports program, that was one of the components.”

Adidas found itself with a runaway bestseller. In the first year of the licensed apparel’s availability, retailers sold out every jacket, t-shirt, and windbreaker save for a few of kid’s shirts in two months. By the second year, with orders up by 27% and sales were still off the roof.

“Looking at it now – what, it’s been five years?” reflected Alonte. “Ateneo has become a brand, a very good one at that, and just as we grow with the school, so do they with us.”

Early in Season 71, adidas placed 16 “higantes” or larger-than-life standees of all 16 Blue Eagles along the stretch of Fr. Masterson Road fronting the Blue Eagle Gym.

Each standee measured at 15 feet x 2 feet and cost around PhP 8,000 each  as it featured the images of the players on both sides. It showed them in various poses with a basketball and they proved an unlikely and popular landmark in the Ateneo campus. Not a few people were amused though because they initially contributed to the traffic jams inside and outside the campus.

With days of the higantes being put up, word got out that there were fans offering to pay as much as PhP15,000 to anyone who could uproot and pilfer the standee of Chris Tiu.

By week’s end, the bounty had gone up, according to sources, to PhP 25,000.

“How they’re going to steal that is anyone’s guess,” wondered Velarde. “It will take them a while to take it down and it is right in front of the security office so good luck.”

On the night before the bonfire to celebrate the championship, the Chris Tiu higante was finally gone.