Penn State and Adidas have agreed to a 10-year partnership that equips the Big Ten university with resources and athlete promotion while providing the global sporting goods company with another major foothold in college athletics. Adidas declined to reveal financial terms.
The alliance, which was announced Friday afternoon, does more than just outfit a blue-blood college football program with shoes, uniforms and apparel. It’s designed to turn all 800 Penn State athletes into Adidas ambassadors and generate revenue for them through name, image and likeness contracts.
“Adidas is making an unprecedented commitment to Penn State: delivering record investment in our department, groundbreaking NIL and marketing opportunities, and access to technology and innovation that no other program can match,” Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft said in a statement.
“We were the first to the market to offer an affiliate program for all student-athletes across all our schools,” said Chris McGuire, Adidas’ vice president for sports marketing. “It’s something we take great pride in, in ways of working with the university to make sure we’re satisfying the needs of those student-athletes, for them to continue to go out and recruit, obviously compensate now those student-athletes to make sure their programs are some of the best in the country.”
In an ever-changing industry with athletic departments allowed to directly pay their athletes (up to $20.5 million across all sports) for the first time this year, this contract helps Penn State recoup some of that redirected revenue. In addition, it allows Adidas to ink contracts with athletes for promotional contracts outside of the department.
“We will pursue individual relationships with athletes at all our schools, specifically Penn State,” McGuire said. “A lot of these student-athletes will help us with product development. So, the longer we have access to those younger athletes, the better it is long-term for each party.”
Penn State joins Tennessee as brand-name college programs to reach agreements to switch from Nike to Adidas within the last month, and both go into effect on July 1, 2026. Twelve other power-conference programs are affiliated with Adidas, including Big Ten schools Indiana, Nebraska and Washington, plus Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, NC State, Arizona State, Kansas, Texas Tech, Mississippi State and Texas A&M.
The agreement continues a trend of Adidas securing partnerships with athletics programs with ties to a superstar athlete. Last year, Adidas reached a deal with Texas Tech to promote its Team Mahomes brand, in coordination with its relationship with Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Then, Adidas agreed to terms with six Texas Tech athletes to market its apparel and shoes. Among Penn State alums, Adidas has deals with NFL defenders Micah Parsons and Abdul Carter.
Adidas sees many of these college programs as marketing avenues for all sports, not just football. Penn State men’s wrestling has won 12 national titles since 2011 and sends several former wrestlers to the Olympics. Its women’s volleyball team won the 2024 NCAA title. Nebraska volleyball, Kansas men’s basketball and Indiana men’s basketball also are global brands. McGuire said women’s athletics is a major initiative for Adidas.
“Obviously a lot of the business and the consumers are really here in the US, but across the world, as college athletics continue to grow,” McGuire said. “We see what the NFL is doing as they kind of spread their wings around the world. College is right there along with them, and the ability to sell Penn State marks in Europe or in China is very important. And new business opportunities, quite frankly, for our brand.”
(Photo: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)