​As Germany begins the World Cup knockout stage with a Monday-afternoon match against Paraguay in Foxborough, Mass., every remaining game could be the national team’s last wearing the three stripes of Adidas. In a move that stunned international soccer, the German Football Association (DFB) announced in 2024 it would end its seven-decade partnership with its homegrown outfitter and switch to Nike starting in 2027. The switch means die Mannschaft will now be equipped by Adidas’ archrival after 2027, ending a long, storied tie with the Bavarian brand.
For 72 years, Adidas and the German national team have been inseparable. Adidas, founded in Herzogenaurach in 1949, produced its first soccer boot a year later. The formal relationship with the DFB began in 1954, the year West Germany won its first World Cup, and it endured through all of Germany’s World Cup titles across men’s and women’s tournaments. “The national team plays in three stripes—that was as clear as the ball being round and a game lasting 90 minutes,” Bavaria’s Markus Söder said when the DFB announced the switch, adding that German football should not be reduced to a mere corporate battle and that commerce isn’t everything.
With the 2026 World Cup representing the German squad’s final campaign in three stripes, supporters told Sportico they have mixed feelings about moving to Nike. “It’s not good,” commented Leo Peithmann, a Rostock fan who attended a group-stage match against Ecuador in East Rutherford, New Jersey. “This is such a big part of our heritage. We’ve worn Adidas for so long; it will take getting used to.” Adidas did not respond to requests for comment.
Levis Qirjako, a former German resident now living in Wayne, New Jersey, said he would miss the three-stripe kit and doubted Nike’s tendency to embrace bold, nontraditional colors for other nations’ uniforms—citing Nike’s teal France jersey in honor of Liberty and Franco-American ties as an example. “I like when national colors are respected,” Qirjako noted. Yet Adidas has occasionally experimented with German kits this year, including a teal homage to its 1994 away jersey for the U.S.-hosted World Cup. Some fans appreciate the potential for fresh designs, with Sebastian Ketelhut, a Berlin physician, acknowledging Nike’s creativity and suggesting it could boost interest and SEO for the team.