Arsenal Announce Kit Deal with Adidas Reportedly Worth £65M Per Year

Arsenal have officially announced a new kit deal with Adidas set to start next season that will reportedly net the club £65 million per year.

The Gunners took to Twitter to confirm long-rumoured reports Adidas would be the team's next partner:

The Independent's Tom Kershaw reported on the figures behind the deal, with the total yet to be confirmed officially.

According to Kershaw, Arsenal's current deal with Puma is worth £30 million per year, and he added former Gunners forward Ian Wright talked about the new kit maker as early as last summer.

As shared by sportswriter James Benge, the new deal would put the Gunners roughly on the level of Chelsea:

Fans expressed their delight at the news:

Adidas supplied the Gunners with kits between 1986 and 1994, coming up with several iconic designs. Nike replaced them in 1994 and were the suppliers during the club's most successful period before passing to Puma in 2014.

Kit deals have become a major source of income for clubs in the last few years, with suppliers willing to pay big money. Barcelona's agreement with Nike is worth a staggering £140 million per year or more every season after 2018, per Agence France-Presse (h/t Sky Sports).

It's easy to see why suppliers are willing to invest such large sums. As explained by The Independent's Jake Cohen, Cristiano Ronaldo's shirt sales totaled some $60 million (roughly £46 million) in the first 24 hours after Juventus unveiled him, and the bulk of that money went to Adidas, not the club.

Ronaldo's example may be extreme, but there's little doubt Puma made back the £30 million investment into Arsenal every year by selling kits and other branded gear.