New athletic director Nicki Moore

[abmarks]

Here's another challenge for Cornell's first woman to serve as athletic director.

Cornell is supposedly a progressive institution with a $9.8 billion endowment. Why should any members of our D1 women's varsity sports teams have to train and live in school athletic apparel made for men?

This is an absurd situation.  Embarrassing.

[upprdeck]

Do they have a contract with a Vendor that sells womens size stuff?
Many of the contracts with these apparel people are based on sales volume.

One reason Duke/Michigan have more stuff you can but than even say Syracuse is because of the amount of Merch they sell. Gives them more power in producing sizes but also variety.

[ugarte]

Do they have a contract with a Vendor that sells womens size stuff?

If no, see abmarks, above.

This isn't about what's available for purchase by Cornell students, it's what's available for distribution to the athletes themselves. With the exception of football, there is a roughly similar student population participating in men's and women's varsity sports (at the very least, to stay Title IX compliant). If the discount requires a volume that requires buying all of it in men's sizes, I'd recommend forgoing the discount. The school can afford it.

[upprdeck]

Its not volume of what you buy for the team. its volume of what your fans buy that drives the bus.

thats why I wonder who we use to make our Unis. It matters on the variety and control over what you can wear and get made.  If you want home away and alternate and special and all that you need to show them its worth it.

[Chris '03]

Its not volume of what you buy for the team. its volume of what your fans buy that drives the bus.

thats why I wonder who we use to make our Unis. It matters on the variety and control over what you can wear and get made.  If you want home away and alternate and special and all that you need to show them its worth it.

If my kids' youth programs can get decent stuff made for any size or gender, I'm pretty confident Cornell can get whatever they want too. They just need to pay for it.  

It has nothing to do with duke it Oregon or whomever being on the receiving end of a Nike free merch bonanza. It has to do with the university caring enough to buy stuff that fits for the athletes whose success they gladly fundraise off.

[upprdeck]

how you buy clothes for kids to play sports is not the same as how you get unis for college teams..

teams get a deal with the various vendors and as part of that deal they get a cut rate on the things they can buy. But with that rate comes a loss of control as well.

There is no pay for it option in many cases.. Its why sometimes teams go years without an update in the uniforms they wear.  Even if 2 teams have the same vendor they dont both always get the same choices in materials and styles.

Maybe Cornell got a great deal with the vendor and that deal was by the way we only will give you mens sizes?  Who knows.

[Beeeej]

Here's another challenge for Cornell's first woman to serve as athletic director.

Cornell is supposedly a progressive institution with a $9.8 billion endowment. Why should any members of our D1 women's varsity sports teams have to train and live in school athletic apparel made for men?

{Insert biennial Beeeej commentary on how endowments actually work...and, scene.}

Not that Cornell shouldn't be spending the money on this particular thing, but unless there's a directed Athletics endowment fund for women's uniforms or uniforms in general, or Moore has a discretionary Athletics endowment big enough, the size of Cornell's overall endowment has nothing to do with Cornell's ability to spend the money on this particular thing.

[abmarks]

how you buy clothes for kids to play sports is not the same as how you get unis for college teams..

teams get a deal with the various vendors and as part of that deal they get a cut rate on the things they can buy. But with that rate comes a loss of control as well.

There is no pay for it option in many cases.. Its why sometimes teams go years without an update in the uniforms they wear.  Even if 2 teams have the same vendor they dont both always get the same choices in materials and styles.

Maybe Cornell got a great deal with the vendor and that deal was by the way we only will give you mens sizes?  Who knows.

Except the article was not complaining about uniforms.  It was sweats, workout gear etc.

[upprdeck]

it all comes out of the sane gear contracts..  Warmups, shirts, hats, etc

[ugarte]

it all comes out of the sane gear contracts..  Warmups, shirts, hats, etc

look, you may be right but i have no idea how you became so dedicated to the idea that there is an apparel company out there who would tell Cornell "under no circumstances will we manufacture, nor can you purchase, clothes tailored for women" or that there isn't an alternative company worth contracting with who would.

[upprdeck]

I  didnt say I did..

I said I know how it works for these contracts..

You normally sign multi yr deals for this stuff. I have talked with people who do this for other schools not for Cornell..  I said I dont know who they have a contract with.. I dont know what Cornells deal with who ever it is.. I do know other deals and what a pain they were to get out of and how restrictive they were.

Maybe Cornell has no deal at all and its just a money thing.  Its been a long time since I had these discussions with anyone at Cornell on this stuff.

[billhoward]

Sounds like a problem that Cornell should have addressed a while back: in the 1970s when Title IX and equal opportunities for women was codified in the 1970s. It should take about five minutes in 2023 for athletics leadership to pass down the word, "Fix this," and if there's a contract the sweatpants supplier doesn't want to break, suggest they can look like heroes by shifting their clothing supplies to keep all athletes happy. Or live with the reputation of producing ill-fitting clothes.

The letter-writer can take advantage of the safety of her undergraduate years to use a potentially confrontational forum -- a newspaper -- for change. In the corporate world, going public is a good way to be looking for another job come your next review. Or did it get this bad, that a letter to the Daily Sun was the only way to get Cornell's attention?

It could have been worse: instead of a letter in The Sun, a TikTok showing how bad the existing sweats look on Cornell women athletes. Maybe a soccer or lacrosse player in practice on a breakaway, one hand holding up the sagging sweatpants.

[Iceberg]

I made a quip about athletic procurement with the whole ticket fiasco a few weeks ago, but now I really wonder about the competence or concern of whoever is running procurement for the athletics function/unit.

[upprdeck]

I think we have brought it up before. Athletics has issues that extend way beyond what normal people can see and this is just another example.

Ticketing
Golf course
Funding
Facilites/stadium issues
The Practice facility, the sprint  facility, Lynah issues, rowing, baseball, the football stadium etc
Now clothing.

tons of issues

[Cop at Lynah]

None of these issues are going away anytime soon.  

The golf course project has been delayed (non money issues) but I'm almost positive that it will be finished within the next couple years.

The Schoellkopf stadium situation is a joke.  $60,000 tarp to cover areas that can't be used due to crumbing concrete.  No movement on the westside of the field.  Press Box needs work to.

The new baseball (Boothe) field is in the best spot because they get a brand new facility and  new amenities because the University desperately needed the Hoy Field land