The U.S. Men’s National Team is on a tear at a home World Cup, and demand for red-white-and-blue jerseys has perhaps never been higher. For the first time, both Nike and Adidas are reaping the benefits.
Nike has been the official outfitter of U.S. Soccer since 1995. Adidas has been the official FIFA partner since 1970. For American soccer fans seeking to support the USMNT’s knockout-stage run—continuing Monday night in Seattle with a round of 16 match against Belgium—jersey options are available at both of the archrival outfitters, thanks to yin-and-yang product strategies.
For Nike, that has meant leveraging sales of its performance gear—official jerseys and soccer boots meant to be worn on the pitch. Before the start of this year’s World Cup, Nike said it sold 2.5 times more national team jerseys than it did in the lead-up to the 2022 tournament in Qatar—held in November and December due to the regional climate.
In fact, soccer gear was a rare bright spot in an otherwise mixed earnings report for Nike last week: Sales of performance sports products, which also includes running and training gear, rose about 5% for the three months ended in May, compared to the same period in 2025.
“Nike is using football’s biggest global stage not just to show up, but to sharpen our competitive position,” the company said in a statement, using the global term for soccer.
The company doesn’t break out sales of individual products, but as of Thursday, Nike’s website had sold out of most adult sizes in both of the USMNT’s home and away jerseys, including both authentic and replica editions.
Asked about these sellouts, a Nike spokesperson told Sportico that “as with any global launch of this scale, inventory does not move as a single static milestone. … We will continue to meet consumer demand throughout the tournament.”
Nike has been suffering of late with lifestyle products—streetwear and apparel befitting the ongoing athleisure trend. Nike chief financial officer Matthew Friend told Wall Street on Tuesday that the company had taken $2 billion worth of casual sneakers out of the market amid slumping demand.
Style is where Adidas has been booming: Its Samba sneakers, originally a soccer performance shoe that has been widely adopted for casual wear, have been a hot trend in recent years. Leaning into the lifestyle appeal for the World Cup, Adidas has issued throwback shirts paying homage to the 1994 faded-denim-and-white-star USMNT jerseys, as well as other ’94 World Cup retro-inspired apparel. The German sportswear maker was the U.S. team’s outfitter for that tournament, and thus still has the license to the distinctly-90s design.
The company told Sportico that demand for the throwback denim shirts was highest after the June 19 USMNT group stage victory over Australia, selling out several sizes before the knockout rounds began. Adidas said it is planning additional restocks to address elimination round demand.
On Adidas’ most recent earnings call in April, CEO Bjorn Gulden forecasted that the company expected to sell roughly €500 million ($571 million) of World Cup products across its first and second quarters—not including soccer lifestyle gear.
Adidas will notably lose the German men’s national team as an official kit manufacturing client after this year.