Back in January 2012, Adidas ended their kit deal with Liverpool as the company felt the club's sub-standard performances on the pitch were having a detrimental impact on the commercial standing of the brand and its marketability as a result.
Former Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer said : "We thought what Liverpool were asking and what they were delivering was not in the right balance.
"There was a gap between their performance on the field and what the numbers [off it] should be. It all depends on success and popularity, exposure on TV and the revenue you can generate by merchandising."
Liverpool, essentially, were branded a failure by Adidas and duly finished eighth in the Premier League that season having won just 14 games, ending up four points adrift of Everton and 37 points behind first and second-placed Manchester City and Manchester United. Champions League football, at that point, was merely a pipe dream.
Seven years later, though, Liverpool are now one of the most commercially attractive names in world football having been propelled back to the elite under Jürgen Klopp, wearing the label of European champions once more. The vast progress made on the field is well-documented and clear for all to see, but the club has never been in a stronger position off the field than it is today.
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Having the likes of Klopp, Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk (already a Nike brand ambassador) present and awarded with individual accolades at the UEFA and Best FIFA ceremonies in recent weeks, and Mohamed Salah being the global cultural icon that he is, all feeds into Liverpool's drastically enhanced reputation off the pitch being driven by success on it.
That is why New Balance and Nike are currently embroiled in an intense battle to secure Liverpool's next lucrative kit deal, with the former taking Liverpool to High Court in an attempt to extend their current partnership amid reports that Nike are closing in on a new deal to become active from next season.
New Balance's current deal with the Reds, active since February 2015, is worth £45million per year and expires at the end of the current campaign, but Nike are believed to have made an offer which would comfortably make it the most profitable kit deal in Liverpool's history.
Logically, Liverpool are keen to reap the financial rewards of their heightened global popularity by seeking a deal worth much closer to Manchester United's £75million-per-year Adidas partnership, which is presently only behind FC Barcelona's £98million-per-year Nike contract and Real Madrid CF's £107million-per-year Adidas deal in world football.
Now that Liverpool are widely acknowledged as being one of the genuine, elite level forces in European football, they hold the cards to ensure that outstanding on-pitch success is matched by profitability off it – which, in turn, should extend the cycle of success by raising more funds to invest back into the squad's ongoing evolution in years to come.
Whoever ends up securing the Reds' next kit deal, the fact that two major global brands are going head-to-head in a tussle to tie themselves with Liverpool for years to come is a powerful indication of just how far the club has advanced commercially as a direct, natural consequence of their return to the top table in a sporting sense.