China's ANTA, Fiercely Chasing Nike and Adidas, Achieves Record 80 Billion Yuan in Sales... Also Faces Profitability Challenges from Global Expansion

Recently, the Hong Kong-listed Chinese sports brand ANTA Sports achieved a record-high revenue of over 80 billion yuan (approximately 10 billion euros) for the 2025 fiscal year, solidifying its position as the world's third-largest sporting goods manufacturer. This performance clearly shows that ANTA is fiercely chasing Nike and Adidas, the two major pillars of the global sportswear market.

The reason ANTA Sports was able to achieve such remarkable results is that its core driving force lies in the success of its multi-brand portfolio strategy. The performance was driven not only by the solid growth (3.7%) of its flagship brand ANTA, but also by FILA (6.9% growth), which showed strength in the high-end sports fashion segment, Descente, which surpassed 10 billion yuan in retail sales, and Kolon Sport, which recorded double-digit growth boosted by the global outdoor trend. Furthermore, following the acquisition of Amer Sports, which owns Arc'teryx and Salomon, in 2019, it recently acquired a 29.06% stake in the German sports brand Puma to become its largest shareholder, continuing its aggressive brand expansion in the global market.

However, it also faces the significant challenge of declining profitability due to massive costs incurred from global entry and expansion behind this outward growth. Despite the overall surge in sales, ANTA's net profit actually decreased by 7.8% to 15.66 billion yuan. This is due to the base effect from the one-time gain following the initial public offering (IPO) of Amer Sports in 2024, as well as recent aggressive international mergers and acquisitions causing operating and labor costs to surge by approximately 17% and a large amount of capital being invested in pioneering new markets.

To overcome short-term profitability pressure and enhance brand value, ANTA has embarked on a full-scale structural reform. First, it halted indiscriminate offline store expansion and transitioned to a model prioritizing 'quality over quantity,' optimizing productivity by closing 32 stores. Additionally, it is accelerating digital innovation, such as launching the 'AI365 Strategy' to introduce 24-hour artificial intelligence (AI) avatars to live commerce and increasing AI-utilized product research and development (R&D) investment by 10%. Recently, it opened its first flagship store in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, USA, earnestly beginning its penetration into the Western market, the home turf of Nike and Adidas.

The current situation, where competitors Nike and Adidas are struggling with US tariff issues and slowing demand, is becoming both a crisis and an opportunity for ANTA. The global industry is paying close attention to whether ANTA Sports can overcome short-term cost pressures and completely shake up the landscape of the global sportswear market by spearheading its successful 'multi-brand' strategy. The long-held aspiration of ANTA Chairman Ding Shizhong, "We want to be the world's ANTA, not China's Nike," has finally been put to a full-fledged test