Nike’s pledge to rebuild Greater China around local product, offered without addressing a rumored plan to cut distributors from online sales, revives the wholesale-versus-DTC tension it spent years resolving in North America. For partners like Topsports, the ambiguity itself carries a cost.
Topsports International Holdings – one of Nike’s largest retail partners in China, along with Pou Sheng – shed close to 30 percent of its share value over seven trading sessions in June.
The company all but ascribed this to a rumor that Nike plans to strip Chinese distributors of the right to sell its products online from Jan. 1, 2027, and limit online sales to its own flagship site and app (Yicai/Sina, WWD / Footwear News). On June 25 Topsports requested a trading halt and filed a stock-exchange announcement to state that it had received no formal notice from Nike about ending the arrangement.
Nike’s online sales account for about 22 percent of Topsports’ total revenue for the fiscal year ended Feb. 28, according to the announcement (Futu News).
Nike and Adidas, the two brands Topsports discloses jointly as its “core brands,” made up RMB 22.33 billion (€2.88bn), or roughly 86.7 percent, of group revenue that year. Their share has remained above 80 percent for several years (Sina Finance).
Topsports’ own numbers were soft before the speculation hit. Full-year revenue fell 4.7 percent to RMB 25.74 billion (€3.32bn), with net profit down 1.5 percent to RMB 1.267 billion (€163m). This was the third straight year of decline in both. Retail and wholesale revenues for the quarter to May 31 fell year-on-year by a percentages ranging from the low teens to 20, and directly operated store floor area shrank 2.9 percent quarter-on-quarter and 11.2 percent from a year earlier (Yicai/Sina).
Shares recovered some ground on July 2, opening close to 10 percent higher and closing up 5.75 percent at HK$1.84 (€0.21). This was the trading session after Nike’s earnings call, which – like Nike’s Q4 FY2026 results, released June 30 – made no mention of Topsports or of the rumored plan to terminate distribution contracts in China. CEO Elliott Hill spoke of a “comprehensive reset” in Greater China built on local product development, making no mention of online distribution (Benzinga).
Nike’s Greater China revenue fell 11 percent reported, 13 percent currency-neutral, to $5.847 billion for the full fiscal year. The fourth quarter alone dropped 12 percent reported, 17 percent currency-neutral, to $1.297 billion (Nike Q4 and FY 2026).
BNP Paribas’s Laurent Vasilescu has called the rumored plan a “strategic misstep,” pointing to Nike’s 2017 pivot toward direct-to-consumer sales in North America, which the company has spent years reversing. Deutsche Bank, Jefferies and Bernstein SG flagged the report in research notes ahead of the earnings call (Yahoo Finance).
Angela Dong, Nike’s Greater China Chairman and CEO, who has held various executive posts with the company over the past 20 years, stepped down at the end of March. Cathy Sparks, a 25-year Nike veteran, has succeeded her (Yicai/Sina). Nike’s Chief Financial Officer, Matthew Friend, is also leaving, with David Denton, formerly of Lowe’s and CVS Health, taking over on Aug. 17 (WWD / Footwear News).
