THOUSAND OAKS, CA - California Lutheran University and Sport Chalet have entered into a partnership that will put the Nike swoosh on all of the college’s athletic apparel and make the design of its sports teams’ uniforms more consistent.

The comprehensive four-year agreement, uncommon among National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III schools, will allow CLU to display uniforms and athletic schedules in Sport Chalet stores in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard and permit Sport Chalet to hang banners in CLU’s athletic facilities and hold promotions during games.

Under the deal, CLU will use the same color schemes and logos for all of its team uniforms and order apparel, footwear, practice gear and equipment through Sport Chalet. CLU plans to develop new visual identity guidelines for athletics this summer.

Nike-brand apparel and gear will be one more tool for CLU coaches to use toattract student athletes. The university has shown its commitment to athletics by opening new football and baseball stadiums, softball field, aquatics center, tennis courts and fitness center in the last six years. While other universities are cutting sports, CLU this year added women’s golf and two years ago added junior varsity teams.

This year, CLU’s football team finished unbeaten in conference play en route to a third straight Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference crown and was ranked as high as No. 8 in the nation during the regular season. The women’s basketball team recently competed in the NCAA Tournament after winning the SCIAC Tournament title.

Established in 1959, CLU is a selective university with 4,100 undergraduate and graduate students from across the nation and around the world. Sport Chalet, which also started in 1959, has grown from a single ski shop in La Cañada, Calif., to a publicly traded company with more than 55 specialty sporting goods stores in four states.