Tebow-Mania leads to new court battle between Nike and Reebok over manufacturing rights - NFL News

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Tebow-Mania leads to new court battle between Nike and Reebok over manufacturing rights - NFL News
Tebow-Mania is not just limited to the media or fans anymore as two of America’s biggest sports apparel manufacturers went head to head on Wednesday over manufacturing rights on official New York Jets jerseys with Tim Tebow’s name.
Just when you thought that the news media will run out of Tim Tebow stories another comes up.
Nike on Wednesday got a restraining order from a District court which ordered its big rival Reebok to stop manufacturing Tim Tebow jerseys and recall any that have been sent to retail outlets with immediate effect.
The case comes as Reebok whose 10-year run of manufacturing National Football League (NFL) team uniforms ended after Nike outbid it in 2010.
Nike will now manufacture the team uniforms from Sunday and will continue to provide NFL team’s with their uniforms for five years.
According to Nike’s case Reebok manufactured and supplied New York Jets jerseys with Tim Tebow’s name on the back to its stores as soon as the trade occurred just days before Nike was set to unveil 32 new team uniforms as part of its deal with the NFL.
The sports giant contends that fans who brought the Reebok replica jerseys will not fork out money the very next week for Nike’s uniforms.
Nike also alleges that its rival looked for a last big cash inflow with the move and called it a breach of its agreement with the NFL.
The sports giant released a statement on Wednesday over the move.
"We have filed a complaint relating to unauthorized use of Tim Tebow's name on New York Jets related apparel. Nike is authorized and licensed to use Tim Tebow's name on products. We have no further comment at this stage."
Reebok did not release any comments over the case as of now.
Both companies are big rivals in the United States and contend with each other fiercely to get exclusive manufacturing rights of major sports uniforms.
Reebok is a subsidiary of European apparel giant Adidas and competition has only toughened of late.
The restraining order will now force Reebok to recall all jerseys with Tebow’s name back and cease all manufacturing of New York Jets apparel.