It began with an email.

Last fall Chris Fuller, among the veteran-most members of Tennessee's athletics department hierarchy, floated the concept of a grandiose 'Rocky Top Runway' production to mark the University of Tennessee's long-anticipated, nearly year-and-a-half march from adidas to Nike, the company that Forbes just ranked 18th on the globe with an estimated market cap value of more than $86 billion.

That simple email was the genesis for Wednesday's elaborate unveiling of UT athletics' new long-term apparel partner and provider. There was a stage, runway, strobe lights, DJ and celebrity guest hosts, former Vol football standout Charles Davis, currently with Fox, and SEC Network budding star Maria Taylor.

The nationally acclaimed and award-winning VFL Films crew, spearheaded by Barry Rice and Link Hudson but with too many talented people to list individually, just did the rest. They missed no detail; studio windows were blacked out to keep the runway look --- and privacy --- intact; new banners draped all over the state-of-the-art Ray & Lucy Hand Digital Studio; even every microphone utilized for interviews was emblazoned with a Nike flag.

Nike executives flew in from both the company's Beaverton, Ore., headquarters and New York offices as well.

Butch Jones delayed departure on his family vacation here in the midst of the NCAA-mandated dead period in order to participate.

"I think it's another symbolic measure or illustration of the progress that's being made here; not just in football but the entire athletic department," Jones told Rivals.com. "You're talking about a global brand in Nike partnering with a global brand in the University of Tennessee.

"When you think of innovation, when you think of technology, when you think of the best of the best, the first company that comes to mind in our industry is Nike. Now to be able to have them associated back with our programs is huge. But it's also all about our student-athletes, and just to see the excitement in their eyes. Our fan base, their anticipation. All of Vol Nation."

Approximately a dozen of Tennessee's current men's and women's athletes delayed their Fourth of July plans to star in the unveiling. They modeled the new uniforms and retail apparel during the hour-long webcast, which opened with nearly 20,000 unique viewers online at noon --- or approximately three times the traffic of the Vols' popular football signing day live streams according to Google analytics that UT personnel reviewed.

"Really significant, and I've said this behind the scenes though I haven't said it to anyone publicly: I think this is really the beginning of our competitive renaissance," said Fuller, wearing a Lady Vols' national championship ring from Pat Summitt's last title team as tribute to Summitt on this day. "The beginning isn't entirely accurate, because I think Dave Hart coming here and Coach Jones coming here, I think we had started to lay the foundation. But this is a flashpoint moment for me.

"We're very close competitively to returning to what I think we should be, and I think aligning ourselves with Nike at this point in time is something we'll look back at it and say this was a moment where we really started to turn the corner with momentum."

Added Tennessee softball All-America pitcher Rainey Gaffin, "I remember when Ralph and Karen (Weekly) told us they were finally switching to Nike, I was just very, very excited. It was something I never thought would actually happen, so I was just very excited.

"We were standing there staring it, and I was like, 'Oh my God, Lexi look at this. These shoes. This uniform.' I can't wait to try everything on. I'm actually excited for school to start. I don't think I've ever said that, but I'm actually excited for school to start."

Both Tennessee and Nike representatives told VolQuest.com on Wednesday that the parties had weekly, oftentimes daily, contact throughout the 17-month transition period, which Nike officials said was a couple months longer than many of their partnerships while they worked to get every element to Tennessee's specifications.

Todd Van Horne, a Nike vice president and creative director for football and baseball, stressed that "getting the right orange" was the single-most important element in the process.

The orange on the swoosh-branded gear debuted is an all-new orange in Nike's color palette developed exclusively for Tennessee, and UT officials said it sticks with their traditional orange "while having a bit more pop."

While Fuller is among the university's most-tenured athletics directors, first-year basketball coach Rick Barnes has the longest-running relationship with Nike of any current Tennessee coach. Hired in April, Barnes chatted with his own players --- Kevin Punter, Derek Reese, Devon Baulkman --- who participated in the unveiling but also with all of the student-athletes.

"I've never worn anything else," he told them of Nike. "They're the best."

Barnes said the student-athletes' own spending habits were most telling as seven different Tennessee athletes showed up for the Tuesday night dress rehearsal in their own Nike shoes or clothing.

"Well, I think for the students it's really big. The best way I can explain to someone other than the shoes or equipment that they've been issued over the years, everything they buy is Nike," Barnes told Rivals.com. "I think it speaks volumes in itself, that when they spend their own money they go out and buy Nike. When I started talking to them about it, they were just unbelievably excited about it. And when they first saw some of the stuff, you can tell by some of the different stuff Nike has put out here it's something to be excited about."

Barnes, whose most famous player from Barnes' long run at Texas, Kevin Durant, has his own signature Nike shoe, couldn't say if he might have viewed the Tennessee vacancy differently three months ago had the Vols' apparel change not been imminent.

"You know what, the fact is I don't know," he said. "I knew from the beginning … I didn't know what they were when I first started talking to Dave; I don't keep up with that many schools. I don't think it would have changed my thought-process on the job itself, but I am very much in love with Nike and the people there. I appreciate the way I've been treated there for a long, long time. Like I said earlier with you, I don't know anything other than Nike.

"You realize, one, why they are who and what they are. People totally committed to being the best in the industry, people that are progress, people that aren't going to sit back on their laurels."

Vols rookie offensive lineman Jack Jones was on campus Wednesday as Tennessee debuted its Nike wardrobe. Jones, a four-star signee in the Vols' top-five 2015 signing class, told VolQuest.com that it was hard to overstate the importance moving forward in having Nike gear on the recruiting trail.

"I'm really excited, I've always been a big Nike fan," Jones said. "It looks like Nike is going to be really good to us, and they've always got the freshest gear and Coach Jones is going to give us the most swag out of anybody, so I'm really excited. It will be great.

"I'm a Tennessee kid, so I was going to come here no matter what. But for recruits to see Nike, they're at the top of the game and everybody's favorite stuff so it just adds more positives as something you're going to get from Tennessee and it's another reason to come here. Everybody seems excited about it, a lot of the female athletes I'm friends with are excited. Everyone around the complex."

Gaffin praised the day as symbolic in Tennessee's athletic and campus-wide unity.

"I think losing the Lady Vol is a big deal in itself, because it's an emblem that represents years and years of Pat Summitt's work, the women's sports work overall. So I think losing that is a big thing, but I think at the same time with us becoming 'One Tennessee,' it's even more important because now we're initially one team," Gaffin said. "There is no difference. There is no women against men. It's one team, football supporting basketball, basketball supporting softball, softball supporting tennis. It becomes one big circle, and we're all one big family now.

"Coach Jones has (spoken to our team) two years in a row. You see him in this room, it's like 'Oh my gosh, it's Coach Jones.' But it's cool because he's so humble, he'd come watch us warmup in the bullpen and to everybody else he's like this big, untouchable person but to us he's right there. He is that 'One Tennessee.'"

Butch Jones didn't term the day a unifying moment; rather he insisted the switch to Nike merely furthered an already present connection.

"Well, we've always been unified but this is one of those moments that helps you always continue to develop and grow stronger and bring you more together," said Jones, whose family were the first customers in the Vol Shop and purchased chunks of new apparel. "Having all of our student-athletes together, but also as a coach I like to look into their eyes and see their excitement in the uniforms and feel their energy. … We're all in together, we all represent each other and Tennessee on a day-to-day basis.

"Significant day. Again, the partnership we have now with Nike. The apparel now for our prospective student-athletics to be able to see it now, and really see all the ideas and things we spoke about come to fruition is very, very exciting. Our players are very excited, and they are our biggest ambassadors of the program."