Brian Feener

Wayne Campbell: So, do you come to Milwaukee often?
Alice Cooper: Well, I’m a regular visitor here, but Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors. The French missionaries and explorers began visiting here in the late 16th century.
Pete: Hey, isn’t “Milwaukee” an Indian name?
Alice Cooper: Yes, Pete, it is. In fact , it’s pronounced “mill-e-wah-que” which is Algonquin for “the good land.”
Wayne Campbell: I was not aware of that.

One of the great quotes from one of the great movies of our generation… Wayne’s World.

The reason for the sudden “Good Land” love is that Dwyane Wade and Converse have agreed to terms with Marquette University (Wade’s alma mater) to provide sponsorship for the uniforms, warm ups and shoes.

A couple of details that I was not able to get from the press release astute journalism:

1. Is this going to be Converse-branded or Wade-branded (bad pic, but it’s the player on the front)? This is fairly significant because it is the only college (at least that I can think of… use the comments) that will use either a Converse or Wade brand logo. If Converse is looking to get into college game more, then I think you will see the “star and circle,” the Chuck Taylor, or the “carrot-star” (on the side of the shoe) logo popping up on more and more college campuses. If we see the Wade brand on the jerseys, it’ll be only the second player-based brand in college basketball (Jordan-look at the shorts).
2. Nike owns Converse (in case you didn’t know). Is this going to be a test to see if it’s worth specifically branding colleges as player-specific (ex. Carmelo, LeBron). I think the company would be better served taking these types of opportunities on a case-by-case basis. The more times you throw names/people into an equation, there are more places to screw up or get in trouble.
3. Converse doesn’t have any warm-ups in their product lines. In fact, most of their stuff is fashion-based. Considering retro-look of all their clothes, I wonder what direction they are going to take the uniforms. Will it look more like this or this? I’m hoping that Converse gets it right and goes to a totally classic look (because a jersey change is inevitable).

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