The North American NHL ice hockey league has sealed a long-term partnership with sportswear company Adidas.
The agreement will run for seven years, from 2017-18 to 2023-24.
Under the arrangement Adidas will be the league’s official outfitter of on-ice uniforms and official supplier of licensed apparel and headwear. Adidas-owned Reebok is the NHL's official outfitter through to the end of the 2016-17 campaign.
As part of the deal, Adidas will serve as the exclusive outfitter for authentic and replica jerseys for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto, Canada. The event is being co-operated by the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association.
“Teaming up with Adidas continues our strategy of aligning with major partners who not only share our vision for growing the game and the League, but also putting innovation at the forefront of what we do for our players and our fans,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman (pictured) said.
Bettman denied that the new deal would lead to advertising on NHL jerseys in the near future. “The fact of the matter is, and I've been fairly vocal on this over the last few years as the subject has come up, we are not currently considering putting advertising on NHL jerseys,” Bettman said. “There have been no discussions formally or informally with anybody about doing that.”
Possible jersey advertising at the World Cup of Hockey was not ruled out, but NHL Players’ Association executive director Donald Fehr said that it would only happen for experimentation purposes.