It still hasn’t been officially announced but Liverpool will be partnering with Adidas once again from next season. The current partnership with Nike will come to an end once the deal runs out this summer.

That isn’t new news. It has been an open secret since late last year that the Reds would bring an end to their five-years with the US sports apparel giant at the end of 2024/25, with the new Adidas deal reported to be worth north of £60million to the club in guaranteed revenue.

The numbers that are attached to commercial income that arrives into the club via the kit partnership deals can vary greatly in terms of reportage. The Nike deal, for example, was worth a flat £30million fee annually for the Reds, but the club received a 20% chunk of the sales of Liverpool/Nike branded merchandise, a move that some claims have placed at being worth around £70million.

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Nike tendered to extend the deal, as did Puma, but it was Adidas that ended up wooing the club, and whatever numbers might appear, the bottom line is that the football club feel that the coming deal with Adidas represents one that moves the club forward commercially, but also one that aids the marketing objectives for Reds merchandise around the world.

In reality, it was only ever going to be one of Adidas or Puma that would have the means to pull off a pitch to take a deal away from Nike. After all, the Reds were willing to go to the High Court back in 2019 to extricate themselves from a deal with New Balance, one that contained a clause that would allow for them to extend their deal with the club if they matched the offer of another bidder.

They did do that, but in terms of guaranteed revenue. What Liverpool and Nike argued, successfully, was that the additional revenue sharing and the sheer ability for Nike to scale and distribute more easily globally was a key element, as was the star power that Nike had attached to it, the likes of Drake, LeBron James and Serena Williams all cited during the legal proceedings.

Collaborations have happened with basketball icon and Fenway Sports Group partner James, with the 39–year-old Los Angeles Lakers star even spotted this past week sporting a new Liverpool/Nike training top.

The club also released merchandise in a tie-up with Nike’s sister brand, Converse, with the idea being to create a range that would appeal to not only the avid Liverpool fan, but also more fair weather fans, and some who did not even have an emotional connection to the club, but who liked the collaboration from a fashion perspective.

Speaking to the ECHO in 2023, former senior vice president of merchandising for Liverpool, Mike Cox, explained: “What we tried to do with the LeBron collaboration and Converse is try and marry something together that is stronger than the individual piece. Also, we wanted to appeal to different fans or attract new fans to the club who may not have been interested in football before but they love and follow LeBron, so the interest in the collaboration gets them to find out about what Liverpool Football Club is and to learn more about the city. From that perspective it has worked really well.”

The same way of thinking has played a role in the decision to switch away from Nike. Both the Reds and Nike have continued to have a strong working relationship, according to those familiar with the matter, but a change of direction represents an evolution of Liverpool’s commercial aims when it comes to its merchandising objectives over the coming years.

Many clubs tie into long-term deals, some for more than a decade, in order to realise the financial benefits and security that comes with that. For some clubs they can borrow against future guaranteed revenue, for example. Those longer-term deals do tend to be laden with penalties for prolonged competitive failure, something that Manchester United have had to find out after seeing the value of their deal with Adidas impacted by a lack of UEFA Champions League football.

The fortunes of Nike and Adidas from a financial standpoint have differed greatly over the last 12 months, although that likely wasn’t considered a significant factor, if at all, in the decision to switch kit partners.

Poor decision making from former CEO John Donohoe was blamed in some quarters around marketing, while there had been criticism that the company had not innovated as it should have been.

Year on year, Nike’s stock price on the New York Stock Exchange has dropped to $70.4, almost 33% in 12 months, while Adidas, who have leaned into the return of the retro trend, is up 50.3% year on year, at €256.4 per share on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Both brands are iconic, but when it comes to football, and particularly Liverpool, the connection between the German sportswear company and the Reds is far stronger, and dates back far longer.

The three stripes are known around the world, as is the Nike swoosh, but the presence of those three stripes on Liverpool kits covers some of the most memorable periods in living memory. Adidas partnered with Liverpool for a decade from 1985/86 to 1995/96, with some of the famous designs including the Crown Paints and Candy kits.

They returned from 2006 to 2012 before a switch to Warrior Sports was made, but at a time when the popularity of the Reds and the Premier League has never been greater globally, particularly in North America, the power of the relationship was probably never truly realised, especially in a period when online retail was not as prevalent as it is in 2025.

At a time when classic kits and retro shirts are flooding the marketplace for football fans, Liverpool have an iconic back catalogue of Adidas kits that they can lean on for inspiration, not to mention the fact that Adidas and football fan culture goes hand in hand in the UK through the popularity of such things as the Gazelle trainer. Taking into account the strength of the Adidas brand in other major markets, and the potential for further expansion of the pursuit of a ‘lifestyle brand’, it offers Liverpool some major positives as they seek to try and make the most of their position as one of world sport’s most recognisable brands.

In the same way that major league US sports teams have been adopted by a sports-mad UK fan base, where team-branded apparel is commonplace, the Reds want to try and lean into that to create the reverse, to have that kind of fandom grow in marketplaces outside of the UK at the same time as satisfying fans at home, with Adidas having been a popular brand with fans due to the historical ties it has with the football club during successful parts of its history.

The deal is also expected to be shorter in length that some of their rivals, which offers the chance for the club to be flexible and not lock themselves in to current market pricing for too long, something that others run the risk of doing by not being able to test the market when the price could be higher in four or five years time.

The announcement of the Adidas partnership and the early months, where the merchandise plans will start to become known, will provide the answers. But the fact remains that Liverpool will feel that they’ve had a good deal financially in the current market, and in terms of the potential for them to maximise its potential around the world.