Monday saw Manchester United and Adidas jointly announce a new and record-breaking partnership. The German sportswear giant, whose name you can pronounce as “ah-dee-dahs” or “uh-dee-dis” depending on what part of the world you’re from (I go with the Run-DMC “My Adidas” pronunciation), signed a £900 million ($1.1 billion) deal with United.
This will keep the soccer-first sportswear maker as United’s kit supplier for the next decade.
This contract extension marks a world-record for shirt deal, and it’s a renewal of deal that was also a record-breaker to begin with. Let’s flash back to August 1, 2015, when this partnership officially began. Adidas and United signed a £750 million (that’s $1,163,562,249) kit deal that was also a world record at the time.
The deal ended United’s 13-year association with Nike, as their then new supplier paid eclipsed the £24 million per season that Nike had been paying them in 2014. It also dwarfed the £21 million per year that Adidas was paying, at the time, for the right to provide jerseys for all teams in the NBA teams in the United States.
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“The new deal increases the focus on the Manchester United women’s team since their reintroduction in 2018,” United and Adidas said in a joint statement; one that did not disclose any details of the agreement. The monetary figures cited have emerged from widespread reports.
Over the weekend, United’s shirt partner made a public statement discrediting “reports” that claimed the sportswear maker had secret talks with the club, and during those discussions they approved the idea of Mason Greenwood being reintegrated into the side.
“We will combine tradition and innovation to please both the players and the fans,” Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden said of the deal that will run until June 2035.
When Adidas took over as the official kit sponsor for the 2015-16 season it marked a reunion of 23 years.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.