Adidas revenues rise in 'strong' first quarter

Adidas has reported a 14% increase in currency-neutral revenues for the first quarter of 2026, leading to net sales of €6.6 billion (£5.7 billion).

This builds on the "record-breaking" revenues Adidas reported for its full-year results for 2025, which were published in March. It showed a 5% increase in revenues to €24.8 billion, with double-digit growth across all markets and channels.

In Europe, revenues grew 6%, with double-digit growth in direct-to-consumer sales, reflecting "continued strong demand and sell-out trends for Adidas products", according to the brand. It noted that DTC sales grew in all markets.

Across markets, it also saw a 25% increase in e-commerce and own retail, up 19%, driven by double-digit like-for-like growth in both concept stores and factory outlets.

Operating profit also improved by 16% to €705 million, compared to €610 million in 2025. This represents an operating margin of 10.7%, up 0.8 percentage points, compared to 9.9% in 2025.

Gross margins slightly decreased by 1 percentage point to 51.1% in Q1, down from 52.1% in 2025. While the underlying gross margin improved, driven by healthy full-price sales and a more favourable business mix, this was more than offset by unfavourable currency developments and negative impacts from higher US tariffs. Adidas noted that these factors would be expected to weigh on its operating profit by around €400 million over the full year of 2026.

However, the company continues to expect profitability to further improve in 2026 and projects operating profit to increase to a level of around €2.3 billion.

Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden said: "I am very proud of the results our teams delivered in the first quarter," adding that they were "very strong in the current environment".

"The general retail environment is currently very volatile and heavily discounted in many markets, especially in lifestyle footwear. The discipline of not overselling into retailers is therefore currently crucial."

He added that he would continue to keep discounting under control, while focusing on delivering "fresh and innovative products to the markets", with its "strong" pipeline of upcoming products including the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 running shoe, which was worn last weekend by Sabastian Sawe as he broke the sub-2-hour marathon barrier.

He added: "But there is, of course, much more to come: our 3D printed football and basketball shoes, bringing additive technology to performance footwear; the unique hybrid training shoe Adizero Dropset; and, of course, what the lifestyle teams have done in both footwear and apparel."

"Our strong growth in apparel is the result of both local and global product teams delivering new and trendy concepts, styles, and materials, and of course that our partners love to wear and show them."

In the UK, Adidas has been sharpening its apparel product offering by continuing its collaboration with ASOS, which put the retailer's sharp, style-led spin on Adidas classics.

It also collaborated on a footwear collection with reality TV star Molly-Mae Hague, which launched on 9 April, with limited-edition reworked versions of the ‘Superstar II’ and ‘Samba’ silhouettes.