English Premier League football club Southampton has signed a kit supplier deal with Adidas less than a year after terminating its previous agreement with the German sportswear giant.
The agreement is for an initial one year and is effective from the beginning of the 2015-16 season.
Adidas manufactured Southampton's kits for the 2013-14 campaign but the two parties decided not to continue the partnership amid mutual difficulties and an unpopular home shirt design that strayed away from the team’s traditional red and white stripes.
Southampton elected to produce its kits in-house for the current campaign, but on Saturday announced that ties have been rekindled with Adidas, with the split attributed to an “enforced hiatus” on Southampton’s part.
“We are very grateful to Adidas for the support and understanding they have offered over the past 12 months while we took an enforced hiatus from our affiliation,” Southampton chief executive Gareth Rogers said.
“Adidas has a global reputation for quality and innovation, making them the perfect partner for the club. We are looking forward to activating our working relationship for the third and final year of our contract.”
Southampton previously took its kit production in house when its deal with Pony expired in 1999, staying without an external manufacturer until it signed with Umbro in 2008. Umbro was replaced by Adidas in 2013.