UK Athletics will switch from adidas to Nike next year "after an acrimonious row with its long-term kit supplier was resolved in a Dutch courtroom," according to Simon Hart of the London TELEGRAPH. Adidas, which has supplied the official GB kit for Britain’s track and field athletes since '05, took UK Athletics to court in Holland last month, arguing that its current contract included a “matching rights” clause that gave it "the right to match any rival offer when the deal came up for renewal." However, the court dismissed adidas’s claim, "paving the way for UK Athletics’ new sponsorship deal with Nike," which will run from the new year to the end of '20, encompassing the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London. UK Athletics "refused to comment on the Nike contract." However, the seven-year deal negotiated by UK Athletics CEO Niels de Vos is worth around £15M ($23M) in cash and the "value in kind" of supplying GB kit to British athletes. It is "believed to be double the value" of the previous adidas deal (TELEGRAPH, 9/3).
