'NIKE' pulls out of swimwear battle! - This is why the Speedo/USA Swimming monopoly accusations may be credible!

CNBC: ...In a somewhat surprising move, Nike has pulled out of the Olympic swimwear market

Sources told CNBC that, last week, officials with the world's largest shoe and apparel maker told college swim coaches who they have contracts with, that the company would no longer be developing the latest and greatest for championship swimmers. Those suits, for obvious reasons, are used by swimmers at the majority of top programs whose coaches have a Nike contract. ..." [Link]

Nike is done with us and we came so close to having their marketing muscle popularize our sport! As a painful result, Nike swimmers are now unemployed and that includes Olympic hero, Jason Lezak, whose friends are going to hold a fund raiser for him so that he can continue to swim for us and represent the United States in the 2009 FINA World Championships of Swimming in Rome: [Link]

I am setting up a donation button for him soon thanks to Paul Carter and Club Assistant.

Rant: I predicted that the covert product placement by Speedo within the USA Swimming ranks could have some swimsuit manufacturers just quitting and leaving the speedsuit market altogether; I didn't think it would be Nike.

For instance: USA Swimming Olympic Team Coach, Mark Shubert, who is also an employee of Speedo, is categorically quoted in a TYR lawsuit brief on page 8 - Line 6, stating that the Speedo LZR would give a swimmer a "2% advantage" over any other suit. He provided no documentation to verify his claim and the next paragraph contains another gem: "I would strongly advise them to wear the [LZR] at trials or they may end up at home watching it on NBC. ..."

Here is the legal brief that TYR filed with all the quotes therein: [Link]

For USA Swimming to allow this statement to be made despite documented suit malfunctions, and no documentation to verify the "2% faster claim," they essentially told the global market that USA Swimming endorses only the Speedo LZR. (Also note that Speedo is the only suit manufacturer allowed to advertise with USA Swimming properties which include both their magazine and website.)

In my opinion the consequences are as follows: a bunch of NIKE swimmers just lost their jobs as a result of this covert product placement for the LZR and the ramifications may ripple.

So, has Speedo and USA Swimming poisoned the marketing waters for every other speedsuit manufacturer by getting a National Governing Body with the weight of the USA behind it to endorse the LZR? A jury will decide and Speedo better hope I don't get picked as a member of that jury.