Nike inflicts huge home defeat on Adidas by nabbing German soccer team kit deal
By Anna Cooban, CNN
London (CNN) — Things have gone from bad to worse for Adidas. After a costly break-up with US rapper Ye that helped push the German sportswear giant into a rare loss last year, it’s now suffered a bruising defeat on home turf.
The German Football Association (DFB) announced Thursday that the company’s arch rival Nike (NKE) will be the official kit supplier for national soccer teams from 2027 until 2034. The decision brings to an abrupt end more than seven decades of the sport’s partnership with Adidas that spanned four World Cup wins for the men’s team.
In a statement, DFB President Bernd Neuendorf said German football owed “a great deal” to the partnership with Adidas and that the association was “fully committed” to achieving further joint success through the end of 2026, when their contract expires.
The DFB said Nike had made “by far the best financial offer” and impressed with its vision for developing women’s football, and amateur and grassroots sport in Germany. It did not say how much the new deal was worth.
An Adidas spokesperson said in a statement that “we were informed by the DFB yesterday that the federation will have a new supplier from 2027 onwards.”
Germany will be the host for the Euro 2024 men’s championship, taking place this June and July. Adidas will supply the kits for seven national teams, including the German, Italian and Spanish teams.
In just under three years’ time, however, fans will see Nike’s trademark ticks, not the three stripes of Adidas, on the shirts of Germany’s national teams. German economy minister Robert Habeck told local news agency DPA Friday that he could “hardly imagine” the prospect.
The partnership between Adidas and German football was a “piece of German identity,” he said. “I would have liked a bit more local patriotism.” An economy ministry spokesperson confirmed his comments to CNN.
Adidas was founded in 1949 in Herzogenaurach, a small town outside Nuremberg in south-east Germany, the same year it registered its now-iconic three-stripe logo.
DFB’s announcement comes at a bad time for Adidas, which last week posted a net loss of €58 million ($63 million) in its core business for 2023, citing a slowdown in sales of its Yeezy-branded clothing and sneakers, and a large tax burden.
It came after Adidas abandoned its lucrative nine-year partnership with Yeezy designer Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, in October 2022, after he made a string of anti-semitic remarks.
“We didn’t have a great year,” chief financial officer Harm Ohlmeyer told journalists last week.
Chris Stern in Berlin contributed reporting.
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