Hocutt credits Texas Tech football great Patrick Mahomes as key player in adidas deal
Texas Tech football favorite son Patrick Mahomes played a key role in a new 10-year agreement that will make adidas the official apparel supplier for Red Raiders teams, Kirby Hocutt said Wednesday.
Speaking to an audience at the Red Raider Club basketball tipoff luncheon, the Tech athletics director said Mahomes recently described the Tech-adidas partnership as "my dream come true."
"We would not be where we are with adidas today, embarking on a new 10-year relationship, without Patrick Mahomes," Hocutt told the crowd at United Supermarkets Arena. "Patrick for the last couple of years has shared with me, 'I want the Red Raiders in the same brand that I wear. I want you with the same apparel partner that I have.'
"And so this summer, I was at a foundation event of Patrick's, and those talks really accelerated over the summer, and he has been behind this every step along the way. This was so important to him."
Mahomes lettered at Tech from 2014-16, twice leading the FBS in total offense. As quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs, he's won two Super Bowls and been selected for the Pro Bowl five times.
He has endorsements with adidas, Oakley and State Farm, among others.
Mahomes recently alluded to the coming Tech-adidas partnership on social media. Tech has not released a contract or other related documents in response to an open-records request from the Avalanche-Journal. No details have been made public, other than Hocutt's confirming the length of the agreement.
"There are a lot of unique and exciting components with this relationship that we have with adidas that we're not ready to announce yet," he said, "but we will."
Hocutt said adidas representatives, in Lubbock since Sunday, are thinking outside the box for Ludvig Aberg, Tech's two-time Ben Hogan Award winner who turned pro in June.
"They're already talking about how they're going to outfit him maybe a little differently on the weekends of his golf tournaments," Hocutt said, "because of the partnership now with Texas Tech."
The new agreement will begin July 1, 2024, the day after Tech's contract with Under Armour expires. Under Armour has been with Tech since 2006 and its official supplier since 2009.
"Under Armour has been a tremendous partner of Texas Tech athletics for almost two decades," Hocutt said. "We've had incredible moments with Under Armour. ... (We) just really appreciate their loyalty and their investment into our athletics programs."
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This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Hocutt: Texas Tech football great Patrick Mahomes key in adidas deal
