From the moment Michigan signed with Nike in what was the largest apparel deal in the history of college sports, all eyes have been on the Wolverines from a branding perspective. Much of that stemmed from Michigan's partnership with Jordan Brand as the first football-based entity to wear the famous Jumpman logo, but with Jim Harbaugh as the face of everything maize and blue, Nike was generating all kinds of additional promotion.
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On Saturday, though, it appears that Harbaugh made a serious blunder. His transgression? Wearing an Adidas belt during Michigan's blowout victory over Penn State.
This particular photo made the rounds on the internet in the aftermath of the game and this is a terrible look for Michigan in its high-profile endorsement contract. In fact, ESPN's Darren Rovell chimed in to say that "this will never happen again" because of the Nike involvement.
In the grand scheme of things, this could be just a minor issue that will be corrected with one call from someone at Nike to Harbaugh himself. However, it just doesn't make any sense that a head coach that is as tactical and calculated as Jim Harbaugh could simply be mistaken in wearing the wrong belt, and it will be interesting to see what kind of information pops up in the near future.
