Liverpool FC is poised to announce a new kit supplier deal with Adidas that will begin with the 2025-26 season, SportBusiness can exclusively reveal.
Following a recent tender process, Adidas is understood to have been identified as the winning bidder in a deal that would run for five seasons, from 2025-26 to 2029-30, reuniting the pair once again after a 13-year hiatus.
SportBusiness understands that incumbent Nike and rival Puma were also actively interested in the contract.
Nike has been Liverpool’s kit supplier since the 2020-21 season, with that deal only coming about after the Premier League club won a court case against then incumbent supplier New Balance, which had claimed matching rights to Nike’s bid.
Nike only pays Liverpool a base fee of £30m ($37m /€34.8m) per season, a relatively low sum for a top-tier kit deal, albeit Liverpool was thought to be attracted by the US sportswear giant’s marketing and distribution clout. In addition, royalty payments on net sales of replica sportswear are thought to push that annual figure beyond £50m per year.
New Balance had been paying Liverpool a base of £25m per year between 2015 and 2020, a period that saw the club win its first league title in 30 years and sixth European Cup.
SportBusiness understands the new Adidas-Liverpool agreement would be higher than the c. £50m paid out under the Nike contract, albeit would fall well short of the league-wide record £90m that Manchester United receives per season, also from Adidas.
Manchester United, Liverpool’s bitter rival, renewed its deal with Adidas for a further 10 years until 2035 back in July 2023, with the annual minimum cash guarantee payment rising by £15m from £75m, subject to certain adjustments.
Contacted by SportBusiness, both Adidas and Liverpool declined to comment.
While Puma was “at the table”, a source told SportBusiness, the German firm is “all in” with Manchester City, Liverpool’s rivals at the top of the Premier League for the past few seasons.
The Merseyside club and Adidas were also partners from 1985 to 1996, and then between 2006 and 2012.
Adidas, which signed Liverpool and England star Trent Alexander-Arnold to a lucrative boot deal late last year, is on an aggressive push in the wake of its shock loss of the German Football Association (DFB) contract to Nike from 2027.
Adidas had been the DFB’s kit sponsor for more than 70 years and its current deal, from 2022 to the end of 2026, is said to be worth in excess of €50m ($54.3m) per year. Nike’s annual offer is said to be close to double that.
The French Football Federation is expected to be the next top-tier rights-holder to benefit from an intense battle in the kit supplier market, having launched its tender process a month ago.
Court case
For Liverpool, the process to find a new kit supplier has been more straight-forward this time around after the club had to win a court battle against New Balance in order to deal with Nike.
New Balance had sued the club after it emerged it was likely to be replaced by Nike upon the expiry of its deal with Liverpool at the end of the 2019-20 season. The brand claimed the club was refusing to honour a renewal clause that meant the pair’s agreement should be extended.
In his ruling, Justice Teare, the judge at the High Court in London, cited the status of rival brand Nike’s associated athletes and influencers, such as LeBron James, Serena Williams and Drake, as a key factor in his judgment that New Balance could not match the terms of Liverpool’s proposed deal with Nike.
Also in the Premier League, Adidas has a long-term deal in place with Arsenal, kits out Fulham and Nottingham Forest, and will have Aston Villa and Newcastle United in its portfolio from 2024-25, with both clubs changing from Castore.
Nike’s other Premier League clubs at present are Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton & Hove Albion.