The fact that you are reading this tells me a few things. It tells me that you are a fan of Mixed Martial Arts who reads news and features on the sport on a regular basis, and thus you’ve seen a lot of articles about the Reebok deal. Call me psychic, it’s a gift. Chances are you may be tired of hearing about the deal, (believe me, we all are) and I’ve done more than enough writing on the subject myself, but an interesting piece of news surfaced that could offer fresh perspective on the deal.
The news broke via MMAFighting.com that Resurrection Fighting Alliance (RFA), a popular feeder league, will be outfitting their fighters in Adidas branded “Fight Kits”. These kits will bear the colour schemes of the fighters’ native countries in an attempt to create a nationalistic “team” look, as the event will see competitors from the United States take on opponents from Brazil.
The RFA becomes only the second MMA promotion in history behind the UFC to introduce sponsored fight kits. This is a departure from the traditional MMA sponsorship model which allows fighters to wear outfits of independently acquired sponsors. The RFA is the only promotion granted a license by the UFC to use an octagon for their fights.
For a promotion that seeks not to surpass the UFC but to simply serve as a feeder league for up-and-coming fighters to prove their worth, on the surface it would appear that the promotion is introducing fighter uniforms in an attempt to emulate the UFC. Further inspection, however, reveals that the RFA may have piggy-backed the UFC’s sponsorship model and one-upped them. In fact, the RFA may have found a system that would silence a number of the major criticisms that are directed at the Reebok deal.
I’ll do my best to avoid turning this into a fighter fashion column, but there is a definite argument to be made that the RFA kits are better-looking than those of the UFC. The designs are bit more simplistic and make the Reebok kits look overthought. The RFA kits bear the simple Adidas 3-stripe design and the native flag of the fighters. The opposing colours of the national schemes outdo the UFC’s choice of black vs white, a pretty cool look in my opinion.
Moving forward from the aesthetic comparisons of the kits, the RFA has opted to strike a balance between outfitting their fighters and letting them wear their own sponsors. It has been revealed that RFA fighters who will be wearing the Adidas kits will be permitted to gather a number of sponsorship patches, and have their uniform shorts sent to the printers in order to gather extra revenue.
To me, this seems like the perfect balance, and outlines exactly where the UFC went wrong with their uniforms. RFA will have the benefits that come with having a leading sports brand outfitting their fighters, but will face no backlash from athletes losing their own sponsors.
In fact, fighters will still be able to represent their existing endorsements in the cage, and there will be no need to abolish sponsorship banners that hang in fighters’ corners before the bout. This is a big step in the right direction in terms of fighter outfitting and sponsorship. Don’t be surprised if other major organizations such as Bellator or the World Series of Fighting adopt this model in an effort to lure fighters away from the UFC with more lucrative sponsorship opportunities.
With that said, there is one more particular area where the RFA’s outfitting policy is a step ahead of the UFC’s: the RFA’s next event will be a trial of the kits. When the UFC announced their deal with Reebok, contracts were already signed and the companies were locked-in for the duration of the deal, which was a huge mistake since they did not foresee that integrating such a system would present kinks to be worked out. The RFA is giving itself the opportunity to return to the drawing board wherever necessary, until the model pleases everyone.
The RFA has shed new light on the idea of fighter outfitting in a way that the UFC’s Reebok deal made many feel couldn’t be done. This is quite telling of the current state of things in the UFC, that the world’s premiere MMA organization may have to take a page out of the book of the RFA, a minor league. They may have to if they want to bring their fight kits up to par.
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