German national teams end long Adidas partnership with Nike deal - ESPN

German soccer and Adidas are breaking up.

American sportswear giant Nike will supply all of Germany's national teams with their apparel and equipment from 2027, the German soccer federation (DFB) surprisingly announced Thursday.

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The new deal extends to 2034 and ends Germany's long-standing relationship with Adidas, which goes back some 70 years and had appeared unshakeable.

Germany's men's team is using Adidas' headquarters in Herzogenaurach, near Nuremberg, as its team base for the European Championship, which Germany is hosting this summer.

Adidas appeared to be surprised by the DFB's decision to switch to its biggest rival, only confirming in a brief statement: «We were informed by the DFB today that the association will have a new supplier from 2027.»

German teams wore Adidas gear for all four of the men's World Cup titles, their three European titles, and the women's two World Cup and eight European titles.

«We're looking forward to working with Nike and the trust they've placed in us,» federation president Bernd Neuendorf said in a statement. «The future partnership will enable the DFB to continue to carry out key tasks in the coming decade with regard to the comprehensive development of soccer in Germany.

»But one thing is also clear — until December 2026, we will do everything we can to achieve shared success with our long-standing and current partner Adidas, to whom German soccer has owed a lot for more than seven decades."

Adi Dassler, the founder of the German sportswear brand, sat on the bench beside West Germany coach Sepp Herberger when the German men's team won the World Cup for the first time in 1954, wearing his company's screw-in stud boots.

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