The University of Wisconsin System approved a five year licensing deal between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Adidas America Inc. at a Board of Regents meeting Friday.

The deal means Adidas has exclusive rights to reproduce the UW sideline and official logo on merchandise. In addition, UW athletics will use only Adidas products for apparel, footwear and certain equipment, according to a report given to the Board of Regents.

UW has had a non-exclusive contract with Adidas since 2001, however the current contract was set to expire in June 2011.

The new contract just approved will run until 2016. The new deal will increase the amount of money UW athletics receives from Adidas, according to the report. In the final year of its old contract with Adidas UW will receive $450,000, while in the first two years of the new agreement the amount UW receives will increase to $850,000, and $900,000 the final three years.

Justin Doherty, assistant athletic director for external relations, said UW has had a good two-way working relationship with Adidas for almost 10 years.

Last April UW terminated a similar apparel contract with Nike because they refused to pay severance to workers in Honduras after closing down several plants in the country.

In July, after several other universities threatened to end their own contracts, Nike announced they were going to contribute $1.54 million to a Honduras worker relief fund, according to a press release from UW.