In a volatile global environment, Adidas has posted record revenues of €6.63 billion for Q3 2025 – its highest ever – driven by powerful 12 percent currency-neutral growth for the core Adidas brand and momentum in every geography, channel and category. But uncertainty in the American market caused Adidas shares to fall more than 10% after the earnings call.
Adidas Q3 sales break records, but uncertainty looms
In a year defined by tariff wars, geopolitical uncertainty and a volatile US retail environment, most global brands would be happy just to hold the line. Adidas is breaking records instead.
US tariffs will cost the German sportswear giant approximately €120 million in direct operating profit impact for the full year. Currency fluctuations created over €300 million in unfavorable translation effects in this third quarter alone. Hyperinflation in Argentina and Turkey hammered financial results. American consumers, facing their own economic anxieties, grew increasingly cautious. Yet Adidas’s third quarter validates its strategy for winning in an age of chaos.
“I am extremely proud of what our teams achieved in the third quarter with actually record revenues,” CEO Bjørn Gulden declared on the earnings call, his trademark energy palpable even through the conference line. “The environment is volatile with the tariff increases in the US and a lot of uncertainty among both retailers and consumers around the world, but our teams work hard, and our brand and our products resonate well with consumers.”
The numbers substantiate that resilience.
The geopolitical chessboard: currency, inflation and tariffs
Beyond tariffs, Adidas is navigating a broader geopolitical landscape affecting every global brand. Currency volatility has been brutal. The strengthening euro against multiple currencies created that €300 million translation headwind.
Hyperinflation in Argentina and Turkey produced what CFO Harm Ohlmeyer called “significant negative impact from currency and hyperinflation-related effects,” which pushed net financial expenses to €86 million – a dramatic swing from the €4 million in net financial income of the prior-year quarter.
Yet Adidas still managed to grow net income from continuing operations by 3 percent to €482 million in Q3, and by 52 percent to €1.3 billion for the first nine months. Operating profit surged 23 percent in the quarter to €736 million, expanding margins by 1.8 percentage points to 11.1 percent.
The strategic pivot to local, decentralised management paid off
The renaissance is driven by a fundamental strategic pivot that Gulden articulated today on the call: “A global brand today doesn’t mean that you’re sitting in the headquarter deciding everything.”
For decades, brands like Adidas operated as centralized empires, with product decisions flowing from German headquarters to global markets. Gulden has flipped that model, empowering local teams to design for local tastes while leveraging the muscle of a global platform.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Greater China, where the strategy has catalyzed a remarkable turnaround. The market posted 10 percent growth in Q3 – double-digit expansion in a landscape where Western brands have struggled. Nearly 60 percent of products sold in China are now designed locally in Shanghai: glocalisation as a master plan.
“We are now creating products in these centers,” Gulden explained, ticking off design hubs in the US, Latin America and five places in Asia. “The most important one actually being in Shanghai, which currently are designing almost 60 percent of the product that we’re selling in China.”
In other regions, the growth story is equally compelling. Europe delivered 12 percent growth despite what Gulden called “phenomenal” growth rates in recent years. North America – often Adidas’s Achilles heel – posted 8 percent growth (12% year-to-date), with footwear up double digits. Latin America surged 21 percent. Japan and South Korea: 11 percent. Emerging markets: 13 percent. This isn’t momentum in one or two markets – it’s a synchronized global acceleration.
Performance categories grew 17% in Q3
The financial performance masks an even more interesting strategic story: Adidas has maneged to grease the sport-to-street flywheel that for its competitors has ground to a rusted halt.
Performance categories grew 17 percent in Q3, with running surging over 30 percent. The Adizero franchise is eating market share, racking up marathon victories in Tokyo, Berlin and Chicago. In early October, at the ”Chasing 100” project in Italy, an Adidas-sponsored athlete broke the six-hour barrier for 100 kilometers – the first human ever to do so – wearing the Prime X Evo concept shoe. Bjørn Gulden: ”An unbelievable performance both of course with Sebastian but also with the product.”
That performance credibility is now transferring to lifestyle. The best-selling running lifestyle shoe has been Evo SL, a €150 takedown of the performance Adizero range. “We cannot, to be honest with you, produce enough currently, because it’s such high demand, not only for runners, but also on the lifestyle side,” Gulden admitted.
Meanwhile, lifestyle revenues grew 10 percent, with the much-eulogized Samba – a shoe that pundits have declared dead multiple times this year – still growing. “Sorry for the haters, the Samba is still growing,” Gulden said with audible satisfaction. “I know people say it’s over, but it isn’t.”
The Terrace franchises (Samba, Gazelle, Spezial) continue to see “healthy demand backed by seasonal updates in colorways, materials, and new collaborations.” The brand is now scaling Superstar with a global campaign and sequentially introducing more classics. Even the Stan Smith – absent from the zeitgeist for years – is heating up again as “triple white” trends return.
Liverpool, Ballon d’Or and Bad Bunny
To strive to be on every stage is Adidas’s commandment. The brand’s latest club partnership, launched in Q3, is with Liverpool FC: “probably the best launch ever for a club. Fantastic sales numbers all over the world. And even if they don’t play great right now… the sales numbers are fantastic,” said Gulden.
Or the Ballon d’Or ceremony in Paris. Adidas athletes swept all five awards: best male player, best young male player, best female player, best young female player and best goalkeeper. What impressed Gulden more than the wins? The speed of activation.
“We were able, both in Barcelona with Mrs. Bonmatí, to showcase her in our stores the day after Ballon d’Or. And then in Paris with Dembélé, the same thing.” Then Bad Bunny was announced as the Super Bowl halftime performer – just as Adidas announced a collaboration between the Puerto Rican superstar and the Mercedes F1 team.
These achievements reflect a marketing machine that has learned to move at cultural speed, backed by €798 million in Q3 marketing spend – up 10 percent year-over-year.
Adidas’s targeted offensive into American sports culture
If there’s one market where Adidas remains an underdog, it’s the United States. But Gulden has accepted the math: “The distance to Nike in the US is so big that we cannot have the ambition of being number one, but we should have the ambition to double our business.”
That ambition is driving a targeted offensive into American sports culture. Adidas is signing college athletes through NIL deals, adding major universities (Tennessee and Penn State just joined), and investing in American football and baseball players.
Navigating the tariff challenge
When the US increased tariffs on Chinese imports, Adidas faced a direct impact of approximately €120 million in EBIT for the full year, with the majority concentrated in Q4. Gulden acknowledged the uncertainty around indirect effects, noting that the company cannot predict how US consumers will respond to the higher prices resulting from these tariffs.
Despite absorbing this blow, Adidas expanded its gross margin by 0.5 percentage points to 51.8 percent. The company has already hit its 2026 gross margin target a year early – with tariffs the only factor masking that achievement.
Behind the achievement: lower product and freight costs and disciplined mitigation efforts. The sourcing team delivered better-than-planned product costs. Channel mix improvements helped. Most importantly, the brand’s momentum meant less discounting – critical when many retailers are struggling.
The US market itself presents a more complex picture
North America grew 8 percent in the quarter (12% year-to-date), with footwear and apparel both posting double-digit gains. But accessories declined, dragged down by what Gulden called “a combination of delivery problems and resetting of the business” with a US partner.
Still, the elephant in the room remains: consumer confidence in the world’s largest economy. CEO Gulden added that US retailers were ordering less product upfront as they waited to see the full impact of President Trump’s tariffs on American shoppers. And Adidas is preparing for both scenarios – mitigation strategies in place, but honesty about the unknowns.
Innovation pipeline: Hyperboost and beyond
Looking forward, Adidas is preparing to launch Hyperboost, a reformulation of its revolutionary Boost cushioning technology that’s 40 percent lighter than the original. Hyperboost will debut in performance running before expanding to lifestyle categories, promising to reignite a franchise that once defined Adidas’s innovation leadership. The company is also introducing Original Sport, a training line for women that borrows the Originals design ethos – a move that has generated “phenomenal” trade response.
In basketball, investments are starting to pay off. Athletes like James Harden and Anthony Edwards are traveling globally, building credibility in Asia and Europe. In a viral moment, college football star Travis Hunter wore a football cleat based on Anthony Edwards’ basketball shoe – the kind of cross-category innovation that generates organic buzz.
Adidas looks ahead to 2026’s sporting calendar
As Q3 closes and Q4 begins, Adidas is already looking ahead to 2026: the Winter Olympics in Italy, the FIFA World Cup – ”the biggest Football World Cup ever” –spread over the US, Canada and Mexico, and major events throughout the sporting calendar.
Adidas launched the official World Cup ball in recent weeks to strong reception. “The sell-out all over the world is great,” Gulden reported. On Nov. 6, the first jerseys drop. The machine is in motion, and the identity is clear: “Adidas is a sports company that connects sports and street culture.”
The SGI Europe view
Three years into Bjørn Gulden’s tenure, Adidas’s transformation is complete – or at least its foundation is laid. The company has moved from crisis management (the Yeezy divorce from Kanye West) to operational excellence (10%+ operating margins) to strategic clarity (local empowerment, sport-to-street integration).
The Q3 results validate a controversial bet: that a German sportswear giant could become more nimble, more local and more culturally relevant by decentralising power and trusting markets to win over consumers.
Record revenues, upgraded outlook, momentum across every segment. In a volatile retail environment – marked by tariff uncertainty, currency fluctuations and cautious consumers – Adidas has delivered growth that few predicted and even fewer can match.
Yet even Adidas cannot escape the broader uncertainty affecting markets, consumers, and supply chains: on Wednesday, its shares closed more than 10% lower—the biggest daily fall since the end of July.
