Good-bye, Air Force 1s. Hello, Samba. It’s three stripes and Nike is out. Penn State’s 33-year partnership with Nike ends at midnight on Tuesday. Starting Wednesday, Penn State is an adidas school.
It’s been a mad race to the Nike finish and adidas starting line, for Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics and its many partners. The changeover — the result of a new 10-year, $300-million dollar contract covering financial, apparel and athlete support from the German multi-national company — impacts every corner of Penn State Athletics. And, Nittany Nation fandom.
Flipping inventory online and at retail stores is a big piece of it. But everything from signage in football’s Lasch Building to logos on websites, social media and players’ jerseys is impacted. Everywhere there was a Nike logo next to PSU, there now will be the adidas logo instead. Will it be bigger or smaller than its predecessor’s?
In 1993, Penn State signed a three-year, $2.6 million deal with Nike, just as the Nittany Lions were joining the Big Ten. The Nike swoosh appeared on the football team’s sleeves that first season, then it found a home for the next three decades and more on the front of every jersey, from Ki-Jana’s to Saquan’s. That iconic photo of Joe Paterno’s cuffed khakis, white socks and black Nike cleats was legendary among legions of Penn State fans.
In a move announced on Sept. 5, 2025, Penn State issued a press release that read, “Penn State Athletics and adidas have announced a transformational, 10-year partnership that will see adidas become the official footwear, uniform, apparel and sideline partner of the Nittany Lions.”
Apparently, Penn State had had its Phil.
With the deal, Penn State Athletics will get cash, product and NIL financial support. The move was teased last week at Penn State football’s ‘We Are” event at the Jersey Shore, where each player received a personalized pair of blue adidas. And in a graphic on social media Monday, Penn State Athletics thanked Oregon-based Nike with a poster and blue heart for its third-of-a-century partnership (see below).
PENN STATE-ADIDAS TIDBITS:
1. FORMER NITTANY LIONS Micah Parsons of the Green Bay Packers and Abdul Carter of the New York Giants are prominent adidas athletes. Other adidas-wearing big names include global soccer icon Lionel Messi and NFL quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Brock Purdy. Purdy played for PSU head coach Matt Campbell at Iowa State. Carter was on campus recently and did a photo shoot in Beaver Stadium wearing blue and white adidas gear.
When the deal was announced, as part of the official press release, Parson was quoted as saying, “Penn State helped mold me into the man I am today, and I’ve experienced firsthand how adidas invests in their athletes with the same championship mindset I adopted in Happy Valley. This partnership is about refusing to settle for anything less than the best for my fellow Nittany Lions — I can’t wait to watch us dominate in the Three Stripes.”
2. SPEAKING OF IOWA STATE: The Cyclones are a Nike school. Campbell’s wardrobe has been in constant flux since December: Iowa State Nike >> Penn State Nike >> Penn State adidas.
3. NIKE IS THE POWER BRAND. Among the 68 Power 4 major college football programs, Nike is the apparel/shoe partner for 48 of them (71%), according to The Next Round. The outliers: New Balance (1) — Boston College (poor Bill O’Brien); Under Armour (6) — Georgia Tech, Maryland, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Utah and Wisconsin (Utah switches from UA to adidas on July 1, 2027); and adidas (13).
4. HERE’S THE BIG TEN BREAKDOWN with brand affiliation: Under Armour (3) — Maryland (UA founder Kevin Plank is a Terp alum), Northwestern and Washington. adidas (4) — Indiana, Nebraska, Penn State and Washington. Nike (11) — all others. Michigan and UCLA are also affiliated with Nike’s Jordan brand.
5. THERE ARE 13 ADIDAS SCHOOLS in the Power 4: Arizona State, Indiana, Kansas, Louisville, Miami (Fla.), Mississippi State, Nebraska, N.C. State, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Washington.
6. WHICH ADIDAS SCHOOL IS THE BIGGEST BRAND? Part of the reason Penn State left Nike was ostensibly to get out from under the shadows of Nike stalwarts Michigan, Ohio State and favored son Oregon, the alma mater of Nike founder and big-time bucks Duck benefactor, billionaire Phil Knight. Now, Penn State will be fighting with Indiana for the biggest home of the adidas brand, with Tennessee a distant third.
Indiana is coming off a national championship in football, and has a storied basketball history. Both Indiana and Penn State have over 800,000 living alumni, and IU announced in October 2025 that its #805k living alumni-base is the largest in the U.S. In August, Penn State will confer its one millionth college degree, which includes living and deceased alumni. (Paul Clifford, the former head of the Penn State Alumni Association who owns a grad degree from PSU, is now chief alumni officer at Indiana. His first day on the job at IU? The days the Hoosiers won the national title.)
What about Tennessee? The entire University of Tennessee alumni network totals about a half million. Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium seats 101,915, with an all-time attendance record of 109,061. Beaver Stadium, undergoing massive renovations, could seat up to 109,000 this fall, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft told Audrey Snyder of Inside The Lions. The all-time attendance record for Beaver Stadium is 111,030. Indiana’s Memorial Stadium seats half that, at 53,524, though famous Indiana alum Mark Cuban and John Mellencamp are putting big money where the growing appetite for the Hoosiers is.
7. PENN STATE BOOKSTORE REBRANDING is rampant. Not only is there the changeover to adidas, but in March Penn State announced that effective this July the Penn State Bookstore will be managed by the Follett Higher Education Group. Barnes & Noble had managed the campus bookstore and its retail operations since 1993 (hmm, the same year Nike arrived at PSU).
Follett will “manage campus store retail operations and athletic venues at University Park and existing locations at Commonwealth Campuses,” according to Penn State. Follett was also awarded a separate contract for Penn State’s sports venues, including Beaver Stadium and the surrounding areas on game days.
