US sportswear giant Nike has secured a long-term deal to become the official on-court apparel provider of the National Basketball Association in North America.
The agreement will run for eight years, from the start of the 2017-18 campaign to the end of the 2024-25 season.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but ESPN.com reported that the deal is worth a total of about $1bn (€916m) – a 245-per-cent increase in annual terms in comparison with the NBA’s existing deal with Adidas.
In March, Adidas announced that it would not seek to extend its relationship with the NBA, which began in 2006 when it replaced its affiliated Reebok brand.
Nike will become the first NBA apparel partner to have its logo on the on-court uniforms, a significant break from the organisation’s deals with Adidas and Reebok.
Additionally, Nike will have the global rights to design and manufacture authentic and Swingman jerseys as well as on-court warm-ups and shooting shirts. Having served as a partner of the Women’s NBA since 1997, it will now have an expanded presence at the WNBA All-Star game and other flagship league events, while becoming a marketing partner of the NBA Development League.
The NBA now sits alongside American football’s National Football League, which linked up with Nike in 2012 and has extended that deal until the end of the 2019 season.