Despite regularly touching the previously unheard of £80 mark, the importance of a club’s football shirt feels at an all-time high.
It’s more than just the kit a team wears on a Saturday, but more of a fashion statement, with the game starting to acknowledge its intrinsic link to the increasing prominence of streetwear, and the importance of football to British urban culture.
Kits are selling out at record rates, with retro and throwback strips stoking the nostalgia that football fans perhaps cultivate more than any other section of society, perhaps allowing them to consider the eye-watering prices.
Nowadays, there’s even three kits for some of the biggest teams, meaning it has never really been more crucial for manufacturers to get it spot on.
In recent years, adidas’ willingness to utilise the iconic designs of yesteryear to modernise the top teams’ kits has seen them become hugely successful, resulting in numerous cult classics.
Liverpool expect to make more than £60m-a-year from their new kit deal with Adidas
Man United’s 10-year partnership with adidas will be worth £900million to the Premier League giants
The German giants have reportedly secured yet another big scalp over traditional rivals like Nike and Puma in agreeing a deal starting from next season on a new kit.
A report from the Guardian indicates that Liverpool are set to bring in more than £60million-a-year with adidas, bringing them in line with the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea at the top of the rankings.
The Premier League is dominated by those five; United lead the way on a whopping £90m-a-year deal that lasts a decade, which does not come as too much of a surprise given their status as arguably the biggest brand in the game.
It is a mammoth deal spanning 10 years, though that is nothing compared to Chelsea’s current agreement. Much like their approach to snapping up the best young talents in recent years, the Blues have partnered up with Nike until 2032. In fact, they were so keen to sign their own £900m deal over 15 years that they even coughed up £40m to part ways with adidas early.
You’d hope as a Chelsea fan that the kit quality drops off, given you’ve got to wait a generation before even being able to consider leaving. As it is, the current crop of shirts are decent enough, the white away kit a particular highlight.
Arsenal’s current adidas deal earns them more per year than the Blues’ £60m, with the Gunners taking home around £75m-a-year, and the kits they’ve been treated to in recent years have been more than worth it.
The return of the three stripes down the sleeves at the Emirates has also coincided with an up turn in form. Each of their home kits in the last three years have been worthy of being immortalised with a trophy lift, though things haven’t quite turned out that way. The good news is they have until 2030 to make it happen.
It’s one area where they do in fact have the beating of Man City, whose £650m deal in 2019 earns them £65m-a-year until 2029, and while around £10m short of the Gunners is still a fantastic deal with Puma.
Arsenal are bound to adidas on a £75m-a-year deal through until the end of 2029-30 season
Chelsea stunned the footballing world when they penned a 15-year deal with Nike as supplier
In fact, Puma chief executive Bjorn Gulden said at the time that it was the biggest deal his firm had ever done.
Tottenham meanwhile are still lagging some way behind their rivals, despite boasting probably the best ground in the land. A report from earlier this year claimed the north London outfit were making around £30m-a-year with Nike.
Being not quite at the same calibre as their five rivals it is perhaps fair that they would be some way lower down the list, though it is perhaps surprising the deficit from their arch nemesis Arsenal. Spurs are currently six years into a 15-year deal, however.
Man United’s £90m represents a statement deal, but it’s not even in the top two kit deals in Europe.
Those two spots are reserved to LaLiga’s titanic duo Real Madrid and Barcelona, who are still even now benefiting from the Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi era that saw the Spanish league thrive beyond comparison.
With the Galacticos 2.0 still forming in the Spanish capital, it is no surprise that the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Jnr turn out in a Real Madrid kit that earns the club £110m-a-year with Nike.
Barcelona, though in somewhat of a tricky spell with financial issues plaguing their every move, are not far behind on £100m-a-year, and are also sponsored by Spotify, with a collaboration with Coldplay set for the first El Clasico of the season, further underlining their marketability.
Outside of England and Spain, Paris Saint-Germain – who have become one of the kings of kit marketing in the last few years – reign supreme with a £68m-a-year partnership with Nike.
It will come as no surprise to see Spanish super teams Real Madrid and Barcelona at the top
Harry Kane and Bayern Munich are unsurprisingly the kings of the Bundesliga with their partnership with adidas
The deal has brought us the oh-so coveted Air Jordan collab that set wallets and hearts racing, and has seen the French club open on Oxford Circus in the centre of London.
In Germany, Bayern Munich – shock – dominate the charts. The German titans are partnered up with their nations’ biggest name in the game in adidas, and that deal runs until 2030, earning the Bavarians around £42.5m-a-year.
Over in Italy, though they’ve not won the Scudetto since 2019-20, Juventus are still the kings of Serie A as far as the kit manufacturers are concerned.
The Old Lady’s shirt may not make it as far in the Champions League these days as Bayern Munich’s, but it does see Juve make £46m-a-year with adidas until 2027, thanks to a contract extension penned back in 2018.