The partnership between Ole Miss Athletics and Nike is set to expire in June 2027. Ole Miss Athletics must either strike a new deal with Nike or find a new gear supplier. Regardless of the decision, the equipment staff will be there to make sure Rebel athletes look their best.
An apparel switch in the SEC is not unheard of. Within the last few months, South Carolina officially joined the Nike team, and Tennessee left Nike for a return to Adidas. For Ole Miss, Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Keith Carter said a decision may be reached soon.
“One of the important milestones is that we have to order product for the next year in September and October,” Carter said. “In my mind, we would want to have our hands wrapped around … a new contract with whoever that is probably by August or September, maybe even October at the latest.”
Carter noted that the Rebel brand has become far more recognizable on the national level — thanks, in large part, to recent athletic success by multiple programs. The Ole Miss brand now carries more weight than it did when the contract was last renewed in 2015, so it is important to weigh all offers that arise.
“Your hope is that you continue to put yourself out there, that (the) brand is strong, and then when you go to the table to negotiate, you have that leverage,” Carter said. “We definitely have a stronger brand going into those negotiations than we did in the past. Hopefully, the apparel provider sees that.”
The Nike partnership with Ole Miss has worked for years and seen multiple extensions. When asked about the current apparel deal with Nike, Carter said the partnership has been beneficial.
“Nike has been an incredible partner for us for a long time,” Carter said. “(I) couldn’t be happier with our relationship with Nike and what they’ve meant to us, and hopefully we’ve meant (a lot) to them.”
When the Ole Miss and Nike partnership first began in 1999, the Rebels’ staff looked different. However, Spencer Hill is one man whose experience has allowed him to become an expert on every product that Nike has to offer the Rebels.
Hill has served as the Ole Miss equipment manager since 2005 and works behind the scenes with Nike representatives to ensure that all the necessary gear is ordered and distributed to some of the biggest Rebel teams, including basketball and baseball.
Hill’s journey to his current role began as a student manager for the Rebel football team in 1997. After his graduation in 2000, he spent five years with UT Martin before returning to Oxford in 2005 to become the Rebels’ new equipment manager.
Much has changed since Hill first began his career, including the landscape of college sports. Athletes now have their own NIL deals with brands. In July, Nike announced that it had added both Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy to its Nike football roster. If the Rebels were to switch brands, those deals could be affected.
Moreover, technology has drastically changed over the years, making the process of supplying equipment easier. The operation used to be much more time consuming for equipment managers.
“We would call a sporting goods store, a place in Memphis … and say what we need and send some faxes,” Hill said. “You’d ride out and meet somebody in Memphis at the store. (The) back and forth, it was just awful. I don’t know how we ever did it.”
After a few years of the Memphis operations, Nike simplified the process with an online database. Each school received a specific digital page from which it could order gear. That system is still in place today.
Even though the process is easier now than ever before, the workload is still immense. Hill received a large shipment of fall gear before his interview with The Daily Mississippian.
“Yesterday, I had UPS show up with like 30 boxes, then I had FedEx show up with 10 or 15 (boxes), and then I had a semi truck come in with wooden pallets stacked up full of boxes,” Hill said.
Regardless of whether Nike remains Ole Miss’ gear supplier in the future, Hill and his staff will remain dedicated to ensuring that the Rebels have all the gear they need to perform both on and off the field.
