Florian Wirtz during a Liverpool game
Florian Wirtz's jersey is the most popular among Liverpool fans
In order for any major football club to keep their revenue streams moving in the right direction, they have to make sure they maximise all opportunities. Liverpool have made moves to ensure that when they made the switch to adidas they were well positioned.
Earlier this year saw the announcement of what adidas themselves described in the accompanying advertisement as 'the worst kept secret in football', with the German sportswear giant replacing US brand Nike as the Reds' official kit partner.
At the time, the length of the agreement was presented as a 'multi-year' deal. That has since been revealed in recent weeks to be a ten-year partnership, one that allows both parties plenty of time to plan and activate to maximise what can be done.
The opening of a revamped club megastore at on August 1 marked the official switchover from Nike to adidas and the popular 'brand with the three stripes' has already proven to be a hit with fans and that bodes well for the revenue-generating potential of the deal.
On Friday, Liverpool revealed that record-breaking sales had been achieved in the opening week of the partnership for both the home and away kits.
A club statement read: “The launch of the adidas designed home and away kits has been the most successful in the club’s history, with unprecedented levels of demand across the globe.
“The home kit outstripped sales of last year’s launch by over 700 per cent, with orders from 150 countries to date.
“A total of 80 per cent of purchases have been made via the club’s ecommerce platforms. While LFC’s flagship Anfield store had its busiest week ever at the newly refurbished outlet, which was reopened in time for the new kit launches.”
As club owners become more acutely aware of the need to grow revenue streams away from simply expecting broadcast rights to increase with each cycle, something that may be challenged in the medium to long term, areas where the club knows they can bring about positive change includes their merchandising arm. After all, Liverpool are one of the biggest sporting institutions in the world with hundreds of millions of fans globally, and ensuring that there is merchandise for all types of fan, and that hits the right notes, is key.
Adidas’ return to the fold at was warmly welcomed on social media upon its announcement and the kit reveal of the home and away shirts was also positively received.
According to club data, there have been more than 40m views of the launch video content, including teaser and number reveals, while the club also recorded 17m engagements and 423m impressions across its social channels for content solely related to kit launch, making it the most engaged kit launch for the 25/26 season.
For Liverpool, adidas and the commercial partners who benefit from such visibility, these are powerful metrics when showcasing to existing and potential partners how impactful the club can be in reaching audiences.
Liverpool became the sports team with the most standalone stores globally when they opened up a store in Copenhagen, Denmark, earlier this year, with another outlet opened in recent weeks in Hong Kong. The club has ambitions to open standalone stores in the United States in the future.
A big part of the Liverpool plan to maximise the potential of the Adidas deal and the club’s global reach was the opening of a new distribution centre in the Netherlands alongside club partner UPS after the UK centre in reached capacity. The club plans to open up further distribution centres globally to be able to service more fan demand.
, Lee Dwerryhouse, senior vice president of merchandising at Liverpool, said: “I think what we were seeing our UK DC at it full capacity, so we were struggling to satisfy demand and we needed to open up another location where it made sense to be in in Europe, particularly after Brexit.
“In the future we'll look to open other distribution hubs.”
While the e-commerce platform was responsible for the bulk of opening week sales, physical retail is a vital component of the way the club seek to operate, with the physical presence in other countries allowing the club to have touchpoints with their fans.
“It definitely has a huge part to play,” said Dwerryhouse.
“We obviously have a large and passionate fan base, located all around the world. Not everybody can visit Anfield. We can get access to products on a local basis, so it's really important for us to keep expanding that store portfolio.
“Every store that we open gives fans a place to visit, to touch and feel the product, to be closer to the club that they love.
“Our stores as well will also, depending on location, will carry market-specific products, so we've just come from the Hong Kong tour and we had Hong Kong-specific products that will remain in that store for the duration.
“I think as well with stores what we tend to do is we'll do fan-facing events throughout the season, so, for example, we'll take former players, we'll take Mighty Red, we just took the Premier League trophy out to Hong Kong and Japan.
“We've got 20 stores now, it's the most in world sports. International expansion has been a big focus for me and the team and there's plans to open more stores over the next 12 months.”
For many Reds fans this sounds all well and good, but how does this have a direct impact on what is the main reason for a club’s existence in the first place - the pitch?
Commercial income, which includes kit partnerships and merchandising sales, was £308m for the most recently published 2023/24 financial year. That was up £36m year on year.
Liverpool’s deal with Nike was for a lower guaranteed sum, around £30m to £35m per year, but the club had a 20 per cent slice of money made from the sale of LFC/Nike branded merchandise, which raised the value of the deal significantly.
But while some record-breaking launches were seen and the partnership was viewed as a success for its collaborations with the likes of LeBron James and Converse, it didn’t seem to cut through with fans in the way that it may have been hoped for. Liverpool’s historical connection with adidas, and its big part of football culture for decades, has chimed with fans so far and that still can be impactful in terms of what a deal is worth.
All sorts of numbers have been reported in recent months when it comes to the value of the deal. The reality is that there is a fixed fee that is in line with their rivals and there is also a slice of sales to come in addition. Popular kits sell more, as evidenced by the record-breaking sales, while there are also bonuses for competitive success being achieved, such as winning the .
The summer additions have helped sales, with Florian Wirtz’s number seven the most popular jersey. The big changes seen have added to the excitement and sense of something new. Coming off the back of a Premier League title could hardly have been better timing for a new kit partnership to start as it provides plenty of merchandising opportunities.
But Liverpool are an immensely commercially savvy operation and the adidas partnership offered them, as they saw it, the best chance to achieve the kind of reach and merchandising growth that they crave over the next ten years with the coming decade likely to see the club’s revenues push past the £1bn per year mark.
Such lofty revenue targets were outlined in an investment sales deck for interested prepared by a reputable US firm back in 2023, during the time Liverpool were searching for minority investment with details seen by the .