Puma Premier League Deal Announced - No More Nike After 25 Years
- New Ball Supplier: Puma will be the official Premier League ball supplier from the 2025-2026 season, replacing Nike.
- End of an Era: Nike's 25-year partnership with the Premier League as the official match ball provider has ended.
- Puma's Strategy: Puma is investing heavily in football, securing deals with major leagues like the Premier League, Serie A, and La Liga to challenge Nike and Adidas' dominance.
Update - 17 March 2025 The Premier League officially announced that Puma will make the Official Premier League ball from the 2025-2026 season. Puma replaces Nike after 25 years, with the first Puma Premier League football to be released in early June.
No More Nike - Puma To Make Official Premier League Ball from 2025-2026 Season
Nike has been the Premier League's official match ball partner since the 00-01 season. Nike was given every opportunity to prolong the deal, but no agreement was reached in the end. Instead, the Premier League will use Puma balls starting from the 25-26 season after the two parties agreed on a lucrative deal that is worth more than the £10m a year Nike was paying.
Many fans will fondly remember some of the Nike match balls used over the last 25 years and strongly associate various editions with specific clubs, players, and moments from Premier League history. They have been part of the fabric of the Premier League, an ever-present for many that accompanied the league on its rise to becoming the richest and most watched in the world. Recent editions may not have been as memorable as the balls from the 2000s - not helped by the new two-balls-per-season cycle - but the switch to Puma will still mark the end of an era.
Puma signed ball supplier agreements with Serie A and La Liga some years ago, and adding the Premier League to their list of partners is quite the feather in its cap. All three leagues had previously been partnered with Nike. Puma's increased focus on - and investment in - football, through the signing of higher profile clubs and players, as well as these match ball partnerships, is not going unnoticed.
For fans who grew up watching football in the 2000s, Nike and Adidas were by far the dominant forces, and remained the preferred brands of those kids into adulthood. Puma will be hoping that their aggressive strategy will see them gain a similar standing among the youth of today, and one day surpass the two sportswear giants.
What do you think of this news? Are you sad to see Nike leave the Premier League? What's your take on Puma as a replacement?
Adidas Launches Special 26-27 Dog Kit for Real Madrid
Adidas has released a dedicated kit for dogs linked to Real Madrid. The designs adapt the club's new 2026-2027 home kit.
The collection lets fans outfit their pets to match the team's look. It builds on Adidas's growing range of pet products, including similar jerseys created for select national teams ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
Arsenal Sends Kit Without Adidas Logo & Arsenal Crest
Arsenal shirt collector @NathanPanter_52 has posted images of the 26-27 home shirt bought for £136 that is missing both the Adidas logo and the club crest. The item is an official product - it is very uncommon that something like that happens.
LEAKED: Adidas to Upgrade Leeds United to Local Elite Tier
As spotted by @theadelites, a new customisation option on the Leeds United club shop website allows fans to chosse between replica and authentic kits (added by error too early). This probably means that Adidas has upgraded the club from the B Premium tier to one of the Local A Elite tiers. The move gives fans the option to select authentic kits built around advanced Climacool+ performance technology.
Reports from February indicated similar upgrades for clubs including Ajax and Lyon ahead of the 2026-27 season, but Adidas apparently postponed/scrapped these. Adidas previously already upgraded British teams Celtic, Aston Villa, and Newcastle United.
A quick color analysis of Newcastle's 26-27 home kit. It are not the colors that make this shirt bad, unlike the Madrid 26-27 kit.
