At UCLA, students show their pride for the university by
sporting BearWear gear, complete with block lettering and solid
colors.
In Korea, young adults buy a more subtle and chic BearWear that
symbolizes the Southern California lifestyle.
And they will still be able to. Bob Williams, the Associated
Students UCLA executive director, announced at the board of
directors meeting Friday that ASUCLA signed a new contract with a
Korean manufacturing company on Thursday. The contract renews the
licensing agreement with the company for five years.
Williams provided examples at the meeting of how UCLA apparel is
advertised in Korea, including Korean magazine advertisements
promoting the UCLA clothing line, and a red, white and blue Korean
shopping bag with the UCLA logo in the right corner.
In one of the advertisements, a young American man and woman
pose together in semiformal clothing, facing the UCLA name and logo
on the opposite page.
“They promote UCLA like Ralph Lauren,” Williams
said.
The UCLA logos on the clothes are so small they are almost
unnoticeable.
“In the U.S., athletic licensing produces huge letters and
sweat gear. In Korea, the logos are very subtle, and the clothes
are more vogue and hip, more like what you would wear on a fancy
night out rather than to a sports game,” said Rich Delia,
chief financial officer for ASUCLA.
Delia said that since its first licensing contract with ASUCLA
10 years ago, the Korean manufacturer has promoted the image of
Southern California through the sale of UCLA gear, offering chic
and glamorous clothing and targeting mostly young women.
ASUCLA also has international licensees in Japan, Southeast Asia
and Europe and over 300 domestic licensees in various U.S.
states.
For the right to use the logos, licensees agree to pay ASUCLA a
minimum base fee as well as 6 percent to 8 percent of their
earnings from sales, Delia said.
But he added that the popularization of UCLA’s name is
more important than the financial benefits.
“We do this to promote the UCLA name worldwide,”
Delia said. “Because Korea promotes the fashion of Southern
California, the name gets out to lots of people and reinforces that
this is a great university.”
A more local topic at the board meeting concerned the status of
the Cooperage remodel.
Williams said the design team met on Thursday. At that meeting,
the food consultant, who is in charge of creating the initial plans
for the food options, expressed concern about completing all the
work by summer, when the remodeling is scheduled to be
finished.
But the facilities team is confident the remodel can be
completed on schedule, Williams said.
Taco Bell representatives are also finalizing their plans for
the remodel, indicating that their project is moving along well,
Williams said.
The design for the salad area of the Healthy Foods bar in
Ackerman’s first-floor food court is also reaching its final
stages. The next step for the board is to send the design out to
several bidders in order to select an appropriate vendor, Williams
said.
ASUCLA also plans to put down new green carpeting in the entire
UCLA Store. Williams said the store would have to close down in
temporary stages during evenings and weekends.
Faculty representative Werner Hirsch expressed concerns
regarding the expenditures ASUCLA is undertaking and cautioned that
ASUCLA should be careful not to exhaust its budget too quickly.
In response, Delia said the current financial strength of ASUCLA
allows for multiple new projects.
“You hear about projects like this re-carpeting and think,
10 years ago we didn’t do that, we just waited until it fell
apart,” Delia said. “This is one of the great things
about being financially strong, since we can take some risks. After
all, no one is going to want to come to the store if it looks like
a dump.”