The deal
German sportswear giant Puma has signed an official agreement with English soccer’s Premier League, ending US sportswear giant Nike’s 25-season run as the league's ball supplier.
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The new partnership will see Puma provide match balls for all league matches from the start of the 2025-26 season after Nike's deal expires at the end of the current season.
As part of the deal, Puma will also support the Premier League across multiple initiatives, including marketing campaigns and events including the Premier League Summer Series, a series of friendly matches that will be hosted in the United States in July, and community-based soccer programs.
The news came shortly after it was announced that German sportswear giant Adidas would return as the official ball supplier for the top two German soccer divisions – the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga – from the 2026-27 season through the 2029-30 campaign in a deal with the DFL league body.
The agreement marks the return of the sportswear heavyweight to the Bundesliga, having last provided the match balls for both leagues from the 2010-11 season to the end of 2017-18. The deal also covers the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup and the relegation play-off.
Why it matters
It is significant to see Nike deciding not to continue with its ball supplier partnership after 25 seasons, however, the move is more significant when viewed in its wider context.
Since 2019, Nike has lost ball supply partnerships with Spain's LaLiga, Italy's Serie A, the Premier League, and Conmebol to Puma, as well as Concacaf to Molten and the UEFA Women's Euro national team competition to Adidas.
This does not include national team kit deals such as Portugal and Malaysia, which were both also lost to Puma, while Liverpool was recently lost to Adidas. The addition of Liverpool will make Adidas the dominant kit supplier in the Premier League as it also has a deal with Arsenal until 2030.
This clearly shows that Nike is significantly scaling back all ball supply deals, seemingly not seeing the value in these partnerships, whereas Puma seems to have had the opposite findings, reforming the soccer ball partnership landscape into more of a two-horse race with Adidas.
Will Padmore, senior data researcher at GlobalData Sport, commented: “The ball manufacturer makes little difference to the leagues, they want the most money they can get, but otherwise little benefit to any specific brand. In theory, all match balls must meet the FIFA standards and should all perform similarly (although as Mikel Arteta will tell you, not identically).
“Nike has been losing ball contracts left, right, and center, so I believe Puma has gone in at around the same value as Nike. It seems like Nike has made a conscious decision to reduce ball sponsorship, as it likely doesn't drive significant revenue, focusing instead on kit deals (particularly international with the recent Germany and Brazil deals).
“If Nike has left the match ball market, that will reduce the competition for deals. Outside of Puma and Adidas, the other brands producing match balls do not have the resources of Nike to pay large sums for the rights.
“Adidas has provided the official Bundesliga ball in the past and I'd suggest the new deal is at least in part a reaction to losing the German national team kit deal, it keeps Adidas linked with German football and it also gives them a presence in the 'big five' European leagues. I'd put the value higher than the current Derbystar deal, although not hugely.
“Between them, Adidas and Puma are now the two leading match ball suppliers; boasting deals with the Champions League, World Cup, European Championship, MLS, J League, Argentinian League (Adidas) and LaLiga, Serie A, Premier League, EFL, Portuguese Primeira Liga, Conmebol and African Cup of Nations (Puma).”
The details
It is understood Nike had the option to extend its long-standing partnership with the Premier League, but negotiations between the pair failed.
The company had been making at least two balls per season since 2004-05, having been the official ball supplier to the Premier League since the 2000-01 season.
Puma, meanwhile, already has a presence in the Premier League through its official partnership with Manchester City, the league’s current champions, as well as several Premier League players, including Jack Grealish (Manchester City), Kai Havertz (Arsenal), James Maddison (Tottenham Hotspur), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Jordan Pickford (Everton), and Marc Cucurella (Chelsea).
Puma replaced Nike as the Serie A ball supplier from the 2022-23 season and has also been LaLiga’s official ball supplier since the 2019-20 campaign.
Puma’s growing portfolio of league tie-ups also includes Liga Portugal, the second-tier English Football League, the Malaysian Football League, the Scottish Professional Football League, and Scottish Women’s Premier League.
Puma also holds kit deals with top club soccer sides such as AC Milan, Palmeiras, RB Leipzig, and Marseille, as well as national teams such as Austria, Iceland, the Czech Republic, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Morocco, Egypt, Switzerland, and Paraguay.
