Students Care (Too Much?) About Athletic Brands

   No matter what sport you play, no matter how good you are, every athlete uses a form of athletic brand one way or another. Whether it be the sneakers, equipment, clothing etc. All of these things are made by companies, and according to a select amount of Weedsport students, some brands are better than others. I recently surveyed 50 Weedsport High school and Middle school students. The categories for brand were brands that manufacture clothing and shoes like sneakers or basketball shoes. The choices were Nike, Under Armour, Adidas, and a category labeled other for brands not mentioned beforehand. The results of this survey are as follows;

   Nike –  44%

Under Armour –  22%

Adidas – 16%

Other Brands –  18%

Why are brands so important to athletes and high school students? One might say for the design of these products, or the quality in which they were made. A popular Nike shoe, for example, may be seen as valuable enough to where nearly identical fakes are made, and sold at a cheaper price than the authentic item. This is so people who would like to own these item and are not aware of the real products features will buy these and think they got a great deal on them.

   In a high school setting, more expensive brands are a status symbol, and are worn as symbols of popularity – just as owning and driving around an expensive car would be to adults. People with less popular or cheap items may even be subject to bullying. These brands even tie into media as many of these companies use famous athletes to sponsor their product and pay them a lot of money to wear their clothes as well as be in commercials; advertising them in order to entice people to buy them. In these commercials there are often slogans, that are used on the products and commercials, example of this being Nike’s “Just do it” and Under Armour’s “Protect this House”. This proves that brands are important in a high school setting, and to athletes everywhere.