With the words “The Worst Kept Secret in Football” emblazoned on the side of the Museum of Liverpool, Adidas and Liverpool FC officially announced their long-rumoured reunion on Monday, March 10.
The German sportswear giant will take over as Liverpool’s official kit partner on August 1, 2025, when the club’s current contract with Nike runs out. Adidas previously outfitted the club from 1985 to 1996 and again from 2006 to 2012.
“Everyone at the club is incredibly excited to welcome adidas back into the LFC family. We have enjoyed fantastic success together in the past and created some of the most iconic LFC kits of all time,” said Liverpool CEO Billy Hogan in the announcement on the club’s website. “Adidas and Liverpool share an ambition of success and we couldn’t be more excited to partner together again as we look forward to creating more incredible kits to help drive on-pitch performance. We’d like to thank Nike for their support over the last five years and wish them well for the future.”
“We are extremely excited that Adidas and Liverpool Football Club are teaming up once again. The club is one of the biggest and most iconic names in world football with a huge fan base,” added Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden. “The jerseys worn during previous partnerships are some of the greatest ever created. We are honoured to once again provide the players with cutting-edge technology to perform at the highest level and are looking forward to creating more classics for the fans.”
The partnership has been rumoured as far back as April 2024, when both SportBusiness and The Mirror reported that Liverpool had completed a tender process for a new kit supplier. A source told SportBusiness at the time that another German manufacturer, Puma, was “at the table,” but they are instead focusing on Manchester City, the club with whom Liverpool has been battling at the top of the Premier League in recent years.
Nike has been supplying Liverpool with kits, training wear and other apparel since 2020. The club also had contracts with Warrior from 2012 to 2015 and with New Balance from 2015 to 2020.
According to The Athletic, Adidas will pay Liverpool a flat fee of £30 million ($38.7 million US) per year, plus a 20% royalty of all net sales of club merchandise, which should bring the final figure to more than £60 million ($57.4 million US) per year. “Sources with knowledge of the Adidas deal, speaking on the condition of anonymity, indicated it represents a significant increase,” they report, “although the incentivised nature of the arrangement means that the amount will be dependent on performance on the pitch and global sales.”
Because the contract doesn’t begin until August 1, Liverpool will have to play some preseason matches in the buildup to the 2025-26 Premier League season in their old Nike kits. The club is in talks to tour Asia over the summer, fielding offers to play in Japan and Hong Kong.
Adidas and Liverpool plan to release details of the first kits under the new deal promptly on August 1.
