The Rise Of Nike In 25 Years At The EURO

Jun 3, 2021

by Khoi

With nine teams playing EURO 2020 with a Nike kit, the American sportswear giant has more representation than any other brand this year. How did Nike get here? Let's go back 25 years and see its' journey. Thanks to @subsidesports for the product pics.

History Of Nike At The EURO

1996 was the first year that saw Nike appearing at the European Championship. In 2021, Nike sponsors nine teams.

The Euro 1996 only has Italy but the shirt didn't have the swoosh on it as the Italian FA didn't allow manufacturers logos on Italian national team kits until 1998. But by then Kappa had already replaced Nike.

EURO 2000 is when things started to pick up for Nike. They had Portugal, Netherland and the host Belgium. The formers are still with Nike and have participated in every EURO since then, with the exception of the 2016 edition for the Netherland.

With EURO 2004 came another mainstay, Croatia, who also became a regular at the competition. Russia is the fourth team that donned the Nike swoosh that year.

Turkey was added for EURO 2008 to make it five.

But by the 2012 edition they and Russia did not qualify, and in their place were France and Poland.

In 2016, the Nike roster became six with the addition of England, who joined Nike back in 2013. Turkey returned but Netherland didn’t make it out of the qualifiers.

And now in 2021, except for Belgium, Russia and Italy, all teams that were with Nike from the previous EURO are now featured. Two more nations join the fray, they are Finland and Slovenia, making it nine teams for Nike. This representation is more than any other brand.