Franchised wholesale, not directly operated stores, led the decline in China retail as the group’s board prepares to approve first-half results on August 20.
Two months after Li Ning finalized one of the richest athlete deals in sportswear history, the same quarter delivered a very different kind of headline for the Chinese sportswear group. Its retail sell-through in China turned negative again.
An unaudited operational update filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on July 15 shows retail sell-through across LI-NING points of sale (excluding the LI-NING YOUNG children’s business) falling by a low-single-digit percentage year-over-year in the second quarter.
A reminder that endorsements aren’t sales
The dip lands in the same three months Li Ning confirmed its reported $400 million, 10-year partnership with
| Li Ning Company Limited — POS Network (China) | |||
| Year to date, ended June 30, 2026 (number of stores) | |||
| Dec 31, 2025 | Jun 30, 2026 | YTD change | |
| LI-NING POS (excl. YOUNG) | 6,091 | 6,063 | -0.5% |
| LI-NING YOUNG POS | 1,518 | 1,516 | -0.1% |
| Total POS (China) | 7,609 | 7,579 | -0.4% |
Source: Li Ning Company Limited, Latest Operational Update for the Second Quarter of 2026, filed July 15, 2026 (unaudited).
Stephen Curry, the highest-profile athlete signing in the company’s push to build product platforms in North America. Marquee names generate headlines and social media buzz. They do not automatically move product off shelves in Shanghai or Chengdu, and the second-quarter numbers are the clearest evidence yet of that gap.
The reversal also wipes out the modest momentum the company built in the first quarter, when adult sell-through returned to mid-single-digit growth, though that growth still fell short of analyst forecasts and sent shares down 3.7 percent at the time.
Wholesale, not company stores, is the weak link
This time the softness sits mainly with the wholesale channel. Sell-through at franchised distributors fell by a mid-single-digit percentage, a steeper decline than the low-single-digit drop at directly operated retail. E-commerce was the one channel still growing, up by a mid-single-digit percentage.
That is a shift worth watching. In the company’s full-year 2025 results, franchised wholesale was the channel gaining share of total revenue, expanding to 46.6 percent of the mix as the company leaned on distributors to protect margins. If that same channel is now underperforming at the retail level, the open question becomes whether distributor shelves need trimming before they need restocking again.
The store count keeps shrinking
Li Ning’s brick-and-mortar footprint tells a familiar story. The number of LI-NING points of sale in China (excluding LI-NING YOUNG) fell to 6,063 by June 30, down a net 12 stores since the end of the first quarter and 28 since the start of the year. Within that year-to-date decline, the company closed a net 66 directly operated stores while its franchise network added 38, continuing a shift toward third-party operators that was already visible in the 2025 annual results.
LI-NING YOUNG bucked the trend. The children’s business added a net 52 stores during the quarter to reach 1,516 locations, nearly back to where it ended 2025.As with every quarterly snapshot, Li Ning cautions that the figures are unaudited, have not been reviewed by its auditors, and do not represent the group’s full financial performance.
What comes next
The update landed five weeks ahead of a board meeting scheduled for Aug. 20, called specifically to approve Li Ning’s interim results for the six months ended June 30 and consider an interim dividend. First-half revenue, margin and profit figures, none of which appear in this operational snapshot, should follow shortly.
