NASCAR: SHR Signs Deal With Nike, Announces Logo Change
When Stewart-Haas Racing hits the NASCAR scene in 2017 there are going to be a lot of changes from what fans see in 2016. Two of those recently announced changes will be how the teams are outfitted and what the team’s logo is going to look like.
Next season SHR will be making the jump from Chevy to Ford. The move will also mark the departure of Tony Stewart as a driver and welcome Clint Bowyer to the team in his spot. With the move from Chevy to Ford, SHR will have to have new gear made for their team as all of their old gear will have Chevy on it.
As a result of this, SHR is using the manufacturer shift as an opportunity to bring aboard one brand to outfit the entire team. According to a recent article from Sports Business Daily, that brand is going to be Nike.
Stewart-Haas Racing has signed a six-figure value-in-kind deal with Nike to outfit the team starting next season, when SHR switches manufacturers from Chevy to Ford. SHR did not previously have a sole apparel manufacturer and instead had different brands worn by team members. However, because of the switch to Ford, SHR will have to get all new apparel since Chevy’s logo is on its current gear, and the team decided the time was right to go out and find one official partner. Nike will outfit the organization with various forms of apparel, and in return gets the exposure from the gear being worn publicly, plus signage on SHR’s pit practice facility and weight room.
The move from Chevy to Ford will also impact the look of the SHR logo in 2017. In the same article it was confirmed by SHR VP/Sales & Marketing Mike Verlander that the SHR logo would be undergoing some minor tweaking ahead of the 2017 NASCAR season.
The new logo is not ready to be released, but Verlander said it will be a small change. SHR currently has a light blue logo, so switching to a darker shade to align with Ford’s darker-blue logo is a possibility. SHR announced the switch to Ford starting in ‘17 early on in this season, but has been mostly tight-lipped about the changes coming next year since then in order to properly see out its deals with Chevy and engine manufacturer Hendrick Motorsports.
SHR signing a deal with Nike is similar to some of the deals that are already in place in NASCAR. Team Penske has a deal in place with Puma while Hendrick Motorsports has a deal in place with Under Armor.
The 2017 season will be an interesting one for SHR as it takes to the track without Stewart as one of their drivers for the first time. It will also be interesting to see how the drivers adjust with the change from Chevy to Ford.
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