People were understandably excited when Adidas and Liverpool FC finally acknowledged football’s worst-kept secret and confirmed they would be working together once again, upon the expiration of the club’s deal with Nike.
Liverpool’s previous stints as a Three Stripes team (1985-1996 and 2006-2012) yielded some of the most exciting and memorable jerseys and teamwear in Premier League history.
With Adidas back at the helm as Liverpool’s kit manufacturer — and hot on the heels of the team’s Premier League triumph last season with a flurry of big-name signings — the first kits produced under this new Adidas deal were always likely to be a hit.
adidas
But the launch of the new home kit at the beginning of August was such a success that it seemed to take even Liverpool by surprise. Commercial details of kit sales are seldom disclosed by teams, but sales of the new season’s kit in the first week alone were so far above expectations that the team went as far as putting out a press release about it.
Here are the details:
- No.1: The launch of 2025/26 Adidas-designed home and away kits has been the most successful in the club’s history, “with unprecedented levels of demand across the world,” the team said.
- Cash Money: Sales of the new kit were up 700 percent, compared to sales of the 2024/25 season home kit, the last under the club’s deal with Nike.
- Bestseller: Florian Wirtz, Liverpool’s new £116 million ($155 million) summer signing, has accounted for the most jersey sales since the kit launch.
- Launch Campaign: Players including Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, Ceri Holland and Curtis Jones joined in an Alice in Wonderland-inspired launch video [I’m scared to watch this, please let me know if it’s good], alongside club legends such as Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, John Barnes, Robbie Fowler and Jamie Carragher.
- Viral Hit: The launch video and related content on Liverpool’s channels has been viewed over 40 million times. The club also recorded 17 million engagements and 423 million impressions across its social channels for content solely related to the kit launch, making it the most-engaged Premier League kit launch for the 2025-26 season.
Why is adidas on a winning streak in football?
In the same way that Nike is the go-to brand in basketball, Adidas leads the sportswear market when it comes to football. It has made products specifically for football dating back to the inception of the Samba in the 1960s.
And it’s no surprise that in recent years, the brand has increased its efforts to assert itself as the dominant sportswear brand in football culture. The company’s CEO, Bjørn Gulden, hired from neighbors Puma in January 2024, is a former professional footballer and, to this day, an eccentric, obsessive football fan.
Gulden is to thank for a lot of the renewed energy the brand has put into its football partnerships with individual players, teams and leagues, especially when it comes to blending the appeal of these entities with the flourishing realm of football-inspired fashion.
It has also translated into the revival of many of the brand’s coveted football products, such as the recently relaunched Predator and F50 boots, as well as newer initiatives such as Jude Bellingham’s signature line.
On the company’s second quarter earnings call at the end of July, Gulden alluded to the fact that he has pushed for a greater focus on the brand’s relationship with individual team partnerships — not just international federations.
The results of this push are already being felt ahead of this season, not just for Adidas’ top-tier partner teams but also for smaller properties like Newcastle and Aston Villa. He said the brand would expect a healthy boost to revenue from replica jersey sales in the third quarter.
When it comes to team apparel, it’s not just jerseys that Adidas excels in — it’s the wider team merch, training gear and off-pitch wear the brand designs that really leans on its fashion credentials, bringing in lifestyle wear like its new Z.N.E tracksuit line.
The brand has also infused its fashion partnerships with its influential network in the sport, for example, creating collaborative products between Real Madrid and its Y-3 line, having Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly walk in the Paris Fashion Week show of longtime Adidas collaborator Grace Wales Bonner, and continuing to facilitate the partnership between Arsenal and Adidas’ increasingly valuable collaborator Labrum London, who designed the team’s away kit last season and whose products also featured in this season’s kit launch.
(Adidas’ success has not been confined just to Liverpool this week. Arsenal’s recently launched third kit is also proving a big commercial hit, according to sources at the club.)
In short, no one is effectively and tastefully fusing the appeal of fashion with the appeal of football as Adidas is right now. The push is also strategically timed, given the upcoming 2026 World Cup in North America, of which Adidas is a primary sponsor and will manufacture tournament equipment such as match balls.
Adidas and Liverpool
Personally, I’m excited to see what Adidas and Liverpool have come up with when they release this season’s third kit — they have so much great archival material to work with.
Adidas isn’t on a winning streak just in football. Overall, the brand grew revenues for the first half of 2025 by 14 percent year-over-year, while operating profit increased 70 percent to €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion), compared to the same period of last year.
Adidas remains very well poised as football style and culture increasingly come into focus as the World Cup approaches.