The outdoor group raised full-year guidance for the second straight quarter, but the more telling shift is internal: Salomon’s blistering growth cooled slightly while Wilson’s racket business, weak in Q1, roughly doubled its pace on new launches and Dick’s door expansion.
Amer Sports has raised its full-year revenue guidance for the second consecutive quarter, lifting the 2026 target to approximately 24 percent from the 20 to 22 percent range set after the first quarter, itself an increase from the original 16 to 18 percent. Second-quarter revenue rose 32 percent to $1.63 billion (€1.41 billion), beating consensus by nearly $90 million. Shares climbed as much as 6.6 percent in premarket trading to $34.71 on the news.
Behind the beat sits a story that matters more toSGIE readers than the headline numbers: which parts of the Salomon, Arc’teryx and Wilson portfolio are doing the work has changed since the first quarter, and the shift runs straight through running, sportstyle and, in a smaller way, golf.
Three brands, three different growth curves
Outdoor Performance, the Salomon-led segment, grew 37 percent in the quarter, still Amer Sports’ fastest-growing division but a step down from the 42 percent it posted in the first quarter, when the group logged its strongest quarterly gain since listing. Technical Apparel, largely Arc’teryx, held close to steady at 32 percent against 33 percent in Q1.
Readers tracking the wider outdoor category in more depth will find ongoing coverage in Outdoor Industry Compass.
The real change came in Ball & Racquet: Wilson’s business accelerated to 24 percent growth from just 13 percent three months earlier, a swing management tied to the Blade v10 and Defyer racket launches and Tennis 360’s expansion inside Dick’s Sporting Goods, up from 250 to 450 doors this year. The insider read: outperformance no longer rides on one brand alone, and when Salomon cools slightly, Wilson has started picking up the slack.
| Amer Sports — Segment revenues | |||
| Q2, ended June 30 (€ millions) | |||
| 2026 | 2025 | Change | |
| Technical Apparel | 582.2 | 439.5 | 32.5% |
| Outdoor Performance | 490.9 | 357.3 | 37.4% |
| Ball & Racquet Sports | 336.7 | 270.9 | 24.3% |
| Total | 1,409.8 | 1,067.6 | 32.1% |
Source: Amer Sports Q2 2026 earnings release and consolidated financial statements, August 18, 2026. Figures converted from USD at €1 = $1.158 (August 18, 2026 spot rate). USD change percentages as reported.
Running keeps doing the heavy lifting for Salomon
Running remains the clearest growth lever inside Outdoor Performance.Salomon’s gravel line and the Aero Glide 4, launched in July with a re-engineered mesh upper, are pulling the brand deeper into run specialty retail across North America and EMEA, while trail athlete Courtney Dauwalter’s fourth Hardrock 100 title added a competitive proof point.
Arc’teryx’s own running effort, anchored by the Norvan LD4 and the newly launched Sylan 2 technical trail shoe, is smaller in scale but growing quickly, with the brand sending eight sponsored athletes to the UTMB race in Chamonix this month. Running is where technical credibility and commercial growth increasingly overlap for both brands.
Lifestyle is where the volume is
Salomon’s shift from equipment toward sneakers now shows up in the numbers, not just the marketing. Sportstyle franchises XT-6 and XT-Whisper, backed by new global ambassador Jisoo, helped drive direct-to-consumer growth of 52 percent inside Outdoor Performance, and the brand opened its first North America flagship on Fifth Avenue this quarter, mixing footwear and apparel under one roof.
Arc’teryx is running a quieter version of the same strategy: women’s momentum continued to outgrow every other category, and the Veilance sub-brand’s spring-summer 2026 women’s collection was, in the company’s words, its best received yet. Group-wide, direct-to-consumer revenue hit a record 55 percent of sales, up from about half in the first quarter, a trajectory SGIE flagged when Amer Sports first crossed the halfway mark back in May.
A racket rebound, and a small golf footnote
Wilson’s turnaround carries the sharpest margin story of the quarter. Ball & Racquet’s adjusted operating margin jumped to 17.2 percent, in a segment that was still absorbing the cost of new athlete signings and higher freight in the first quarter, when its margin had slipped to 3.6 percent. Tennis still drives the segment, but management also flagged a return to growth in baseball, followed by golf and inflatables, without breaking out figures for either.
Guidance keeps climbing, tariffs keep the caveat attached
For the third quarter, Amer Sports is guiding to 18 to 20 percent revenue growth and adjusted earnings per share of $0.31 to $0.33. Full-year gross margin guidance rose to 60.5 to 61 percent, though CFO Andrew Page confirmed that an 80-basis-point net tariff refund benefit lifted this year’s margin one time only, when analysts pressed on how to model the comparison against next year.
