Michael Phelps’ new Sports Illustrated cover could make Under Armour furious – Business Insider

Sports
Illustrated

Something fishy is going on.

Eben Novy-Williams and Scott Soshnick at Bloomberg have
pointed out that Under Armour’s star athlete, Michael
Phelps, isn’t wearing Under Armour on the cover of
Sports Illustrated.

He’s wearing Nike.

“This will go on the wall at Nike,” Rick Burton, who
previously worked as a US Olympic Committee chief marketing
officer, told Bloomberg. “Under Armour must be going wild behind
closed doors.”

An Under Armour representative and Phelps’ agent told Bloomberg
that he was required to wear Nike, as it’s Team USA’s sponsor for
the Olympics.

But three sources told Bloomberg that there was no such
requirement.

Under Armour did not immediately respond to Business
Insider’s request for comment.

In 2012, the US Olympic Committee cemented a partnership
with
Nike that would last through 2020, Reuters reported.

“It is always challenging analyzing, interpreting, and managing
the myriad rules and regs with which the athletes are told they
must comply, with their eligibility at stake,” Peter Carlisle,
Phelps’ agent, told Bloomberg.

Bloomberg notes that this cover will reach about 18.2
million people.

In the following behind-the-scenes video, though, Phelps is
wearing Under Armour shoes, Bloomberg points out.

The video is below:

In the past, Phelps has done his duty as an Under Armour
spokesman, going so far as to say that he’s never even worn Nike.

“For me, growing up in Baltimore, Under Armour
is the sports line. It’s what I grew up
with my whole life,” he told
Adweek in March. “I don’t know another brand. To
be honest, I have never worn a pair of Nikes in my entire life. I
couldn’t even wear Nikes when I was with Speedo, before Under
Armour. I’ve literally never tried on a pair of Nike
shoes.”

But there’s something quite revealing in that Adweek
story, as writer Tim Nudd wrote that he “backtracks on this
a little, and admits to having worn them on the podium when Nike
was a team sponsor. But he insists he’s never done so
recreationally.”