Spain and Argentina wore adidas kits in the 2026 World Cup final. So did the referees. The match ball was adidas too. For the German sportswear giant, the tournament delivered a commercial result that may have felt almost as satisfying as lifting the trophy itself.
adidas is projecting around €1.5 billion in World Cup-related sales, including jerseys, match balls and football-inspired streetwear. The figure is significantly higher than the more than €1 billion the company had previously forecast.
The brand outfitted 14 national teams at the tournament, with both finalists — eventual champions Spain and runners-up Argentina — wearing its kits. The referees also wore adidas, giving the brand exceptional visibility during the most important match of the competition.
CEO Björn Gulden described having both finalists and the match officials in adidas products as “more than we could have wished for.”
Mexico outsold both finalists
Interestingly, the tournament’s best-selling adidas jersey was not Spain’s or Argentina’s.
Mexico’s jersey topped the sales rankings, narrowly ahead of Argentina’s, while Spain’s shirt also performed strongly. The result highlights how jersey sales are influenced not only by sporting success, but also by the size of a team’s fan base and its international diaspora.
Mexico’s commercial strength in the US Hispanic market has previously made the national team’s jersey a major retail force, even when the team’s on-field performance has not matched that of the tournament’s biggest contenders.
adidas also benefited from demand for retro-inspired products. Its US jersey collection, featuring a denim-inspired design referencing the 1994 World Cup, ranked among the brand’s strongest apparel launches of the summer.
adidas wins the kit-supplier battle
The tournament also became a commercial contest between the three biggest national-team kit suppliers.
- adidas: 14 teams
- Nike: 12 teams
- PUMA: 11 teams
Nike supplied the kits for France and England, but neither team reached the final. PUMA had Morocco and Switzerland in the quarterfinals.
For adidas, however, the combination of the champions, runners-up, referees and official match ball created a level of visibility that extended far beyond the number of teams it supplied.
Spain’s success created a supply problem
There was one complication to adidas’ success: demand was not evenly distributed.
While some national-team jerseys were discounted by as much as 50% during the latter stages of the tournament, Spain’s authentic home shirt reportedly sold out on adidas’ own website. Only replica versions remained available in some adult and children’s sizes.
Demand for Spain-related merchandise accelerated further after the team’s progress through the knockout stage and the emergence of young star Lamine Yamal as one of the tournament’s biggest names.
The contrasting picture — heavy discounts for some teams and stock shortages for others — underlines the difficulty of predicting World Cup demand months in advance.
But for adidas, the broader commercial picture is clear: the brand may not have won the official World Cup trophy, but by dressing both finalists, supplying the referees and selling the tournament’s biggest jersey volumes, it secured a victory of its own.