UCLA’s Long-Awaited Partnership with Under Armour Starts Today

Ding-dong, the witch is dead!

UCLA’s seemingly interminable relationship with Adidas is finally over and UCLA’s new partnership with Under Armour has finally arrived.

It’s been a day long in coming.

Bruin fans should never again have to put up with stubs on UCLA Football jerseys instead of the UCLA Stripe. After all, there is a reason it’s called the UCLA Stripe.

So, now that today has finally arrived what do you need to know about the new Under Armour merchandise?

Well, let’s get the bad news out of the way quickly. You will not be able to walk into a store anywhere today and buy a replacement for that Adidas-made UCLA Football jersey you threw in the fireplace last Thanksgiving weekend after the team lost to UC Berkeley on the road.

That’s because the Under Armour football uniforms will not be unveiled until the annual Bruin Viewin’ season-ticket holder event at the Rose Bowl on July 15th. So, if you’re a season ticket holder, get your Bruin Viewin’ tickets now! I’ve confirmed that the new UA football jerseys will be available for purchase that night.

Now, that that is out of the way, let’s get down to the important stuff.

Where can I buy the new UA UCLA Merchandise?

Well, that depends on whether you want to shop online or in a store.

Online Purchases

If you want to buy it online, the two best places as of 12:40 am PT are the Bruin Team Shop and the ASUCLA online store. The Bruin Team Shop is advertising free shipping and 10% off all Under Armour merchandise purchased TODAY ONLY, but a quick check of the site indicates that the site is not taking the 10% off as advertised at the time of this writing.

The ASUCLA online store is advertising free shipping on all orders placed today with any Under Armour purchase (excluding diploma frames), but not the 10% off, which is odd because both sites are run by ASUCLA.

At press time, the UA website has not added any UCLA merchandise yet to their site, probably because midnight PT is 3 am ET. For now, we’ll cut UA some slack, but we hope that they fix that early in the morning.

Brick and Mortar Purchases

The Ackerman store on campus opens at noon today.

The Under Armour Brand House store at 837 Americana Way in Glendale should also have UCLA merchandise available for sale when the store opens at 10 am PT.

In Southern California, Under Armour also has “Factory House” stores in Camarillo, Commerce, Orange, Ontario and San Clemente. These locations also open at 10 am PT. For other Under Armour stores closer to you, go to the Under Armour website’s store locator. Of course, outside of Southern California, your mileage may vary.

Our unmanaged expectation is that every UA store from Camarillo to San Clemente should have the new UCLA merchandise in stock, but, remember, you are dealing with store personnel. If you don’t see it, kindly ask them to look in the back. After all, someone may have forgotten to put something out or they may have sold what was initially put out on the sales floor.

I will be visiting the Glendale and Camarillo UA locations while AnteatersandBruins will be visiting at least one of the Orange County stores to see what is available at each location. We will report on this later today.

But how does the UA merchandise look? Is there one color blue?

One of the biggest criticisms of Adidas was the seemingly constant additional shades of blue and lack of one consistent blue in the Adidas color palette.

Have no fear about that with UnderArmour.

UA has gone to UCLA tradition and updated it. The only shade of blue used will be what’s being called “Powderkeg Blue”. Now, this is not Gary Beban’s or Red Sanders’ powderkeg blue. The hue is a lot closer (and possibly a little darker) than the True Blue used recently by Adidas.

But, that’s it.

No navy blue. No other shade of blue. Just the one shade that’s using that name “Powderkeg Blue”.

And, the way I can tell you that is because I obtained the entire 128-page Under Armour UCLA Style Guide and I’ve thoroughly reviewed it.

There are two different shades of gold being used, but that’s also consistent with UCLA traditions. “Westwood Gold” is your traditional yellow gold that’s been around forever, while “Mighty Gold” is more of richer gold that is slated only for use on uniforms.

For those who didn’t click over to one of the webpages yet to look at the UA merchandise, I will also tell you that the UCLA Stripe is featured prominently in the style guide and on the merchandise. No one, and I mean no one, can argue that UA is ignoring the UCLA Stripe today.

Also, the “B” logo from the Bruin baseball team caps is being retired in favor of an updated “B”. By itself, it looks a little funny. But, when you look in the style guide you’ll get a better idea of what to expect from the baseball unis and you’ll see how the updated “B” fits in.

Finally, there is a new mascot logo coming which I suspect we will see soon enough.

So, without further adieu, here’s the full 128-page Under Armour UCLA Style Guide.

And, to wrap this all up, here’s a short video the UCLA Athletic Department has posted on the UCLA Brand. It’s notable because you can get a few hints of what the football unis will look like. There’s nothing too surprising there. It looks like a dark, probably black, alternate uni is planned. But, we’ll have to wait two weeks for that.

Finally, we have to offer congratulations to Dan Guerrero and the entire staff at the Athletic Department who made this much-needed change happen. It’s good to see UCLA Athletics with a supplier who sweats the small details down to little triangles representing the Wooden Pyramid of Success.


Go Bruins!!!