Can someone please explain to me why we have to have the UR next to the spider on our apparel? I remember hearing that another company had acquired a trademark before us, but surely that doesn’t mean we can’t have a different spider on our clothing, right? If that’s the case then nobody can put a lion on clothing because the Detroit Lions have the trademark on that. I just think the Spider with the UR next to it is too busy looking and unattractive. You don’t see Clemson writing CU next to their paw print. Incidentally, wouldn’t it be nice if someone actually gave a d@mn in the bookstore and started ordering attractive, non generic apparel? Twenty five years and almost nothing has changed. Time to bring in professionals, alumni, students etc. to overhaul that place and drag it into the 21st century. The basketball team has no trouble acquiring nice looking shirts, why can’t we hire whoever they’re using?
Trademark question
- Thread starter PASpider
- Start date
Yes, Spyder ski/athletic wear company trademarked a spider before we did. The settlement with them allowed us to use our spider logo on certain products but only if the UR or Richmond is used alongside it. (That restriction only applies to products sold to the public...our athletic teams can use just the spider.)
Spyder certainly can’t control all spider depictions, but apparently ours are similar enough that there’s an issue.
There’s some detail on the exact restrictions on page 5 of this document:
https://communications.richmond.edu/common/pdf/ur-logos.pdf
Spyder certainly can’t control all spider depictions, but apparently ours are similar enough that there’s an issue.
There’s some detail on the exact restrictions on page 5 of this document:
https://communications.richmond.edu/common/pdf/ur-logos.pdf
Feel like our marketing department dropped the ball not partnering with Spider-Man or even Spyder. Truth be told I wear my Spyder fleece to a lot of our games and get asked where I got it because they love it. We should of unloaded a brinks truck to partner with them.
So without knowing what exactly your complaint is with the UR apparel, and having run a company that sells collegiate licensed goods. I can shed some light that just “ordering” non-generic apparel isn’t as easy as it sounds in the licensed apparel business. One of the notable downsides to being a small school is that vendors generally don’t want that business, there’s just no volume there. So you’re kind of stuck as a buyer either taking what’s there (what I imagine you’re referring to as generic). The alternative is you have to source a vendor that will do custom, small batch runs, authorize them as a licensed vendor, then hope they can deliver and that whatever you cooked up actually sells. And oh, they’re expensive as hell.
I’m not saying it’s impossible but it’s not as simple as opening up more catalogs and finding better stuff.
TBone is totally correct. Also, to decorate licensed products you absolutely must follow the guidelines that are in place for (in this case) by the school’s marketing arm. If a company changes the logo they are in jeopardy of losing the right to continue using the logo at all.
You might try going through the AD’s office to find out who calls the shots on what is and isn’t considered acceptable for our logo. They may actually be interested in your concerns.
Have a winning team in a prominent sport - in our case - Basketball since football is FCS, and you don't need to worry about logo and low printing quantities,etc - because you get a good shoe deal and Nike, Adidas, Under Armour will take care of that. But they need to know you name and logo will be out there year after year.
Gonzaga is a good example. They only have 7,000 students - so yes, larger than UR but not compared to other big schools. They don't have big football. But when your basketball team is top 25 every year and get national TV games every week - Nike takes care of the rest.
Gonzaga is a good example. They only have 7,000 students - so yes, larger than UR but not compared to other big schools. They don't have big football. But when your basketball team is top 25 every year and get national TV games every week - Nike takes care of the rest.
I just look at schools like Bucknell providing so much more apparel than ours does and wondering why.
https://bucknell.bncollege.com/shop/bucknell/products/apparel/mens
https://bucknell.bncollege.com/shop/bucknell/products/apparel/mens
I kind of agree. I’ve needed some shorts and couldn’t find any on our product list.
