Nike and adidas played a significant role in cycling during the '90s and 2000s

There was a historic moment when the eternal battle between Nike and adidas for supremacy in sports also developed on the asphalt. Between the late 1990s and early 2000s, the two giants of sportswear monopolized the aesthetics of cycling. This dominance, that of the Three Stripes and the Swoosh, accompanied the rise and fall of Jan Ullrich and Lance Armstrong respectively; it was a period of great successes, initially tarnished and later erased by doping allegations, which were eventually confirmed by the individuals involved. The association between adidas and cycling was already strong before Ullrich's appearance on the scene: Eddy Merckx wore adidas footwear when on October 25, 1972, he set the hour record, but the partnership with the commercial sponsor Telekom allowed the German brand to return to prominence in cycling after a period of relative anonymity. Initially, the contribution was technological, as adidas developed cutting-edge lycra kits for the iconic pink and black jerseys. Jan Ullrich won the 1997 edition of the Tour de France and finished second in three of the next four editions, and his popularity was so strong that in 1998 adidas even made a pair of cycling shoes for him, inspired by the design of the Predator Accelerator, with the Three Stripes curving smoothly along the entire shoe.

The collaboration between Nike and Lance Armstrong, on the other hand, began in 1996, when the American cyclist returned to professional racing after recovering from testicular cancer, and lasted until 2012, when Nike decided to break the contract due to "seemingly insurmountable evidence that for over a decade Lance had used doping and deceived Nike". In the meantime, there were seven consecutive Tour de France victories from 1999 to 2005, which made Armstrong one of the most popular, successful, and highest-paid athletes of all time, as well as the main face of Nike among U.S. athletes, alongside Tiger Woods and Serena Williams. Nike's involvement in cycling focused primarily on shoe production, both for the road with a signature shoe for Armstrong, the Nike Lance, and a series of evolutions of the iconic Poggio, an ultralight model with a carbon fiber sole that aesthetically followed the Nike trends of the time, such as the bright colors of the Total90. Moreover, Armstrong’s success and following were so significant that Nike even designed a line of sneakers related to his Livestrong foundation.

As mentioned, those years of success were later overshadowed by doping allegations, and gradually, both adidas and Nike's involvement in cycling decreased, but it did not disappear entirely. In 2020, adidas returned to producing its own cycling shoe for the first time since 2005, namely The Road Cycling Shoe, a model inspired by the brand’s sneakers with a seamless, breathable upper. Moreover, adidas has remained synonymous with success in cycling: since 1984, it has been the technical sponsor of the British Olympic team, a nation that has dominated track cycling in the Olympic Games from 2012 to the present. Nike continued to produce shoes with models increasingly similar to soccer cleats: the extreme example involved Mark Cavendish in 2018 with a replica of the R9, and today, the flagship product is the SuperRep Cycle, a shoe designed for indoor cycling with an upper that allows the foot to breathe. Furthermore, at the beginning of the year, a partnership was announced as the Official lifestyle apparel supplier for FDJ-Suez, a women's cycling team, the only one that can boast a collaboration with Nike in the entire professional field, also thanks to the presence of Demi Vollering, a Dutch cyclist who became a Nike athlete in 2024.