In the third quarter of 2026, China's sports footwear and apparel industry entered deep adjustment waters: soft demand, inventory pressure, and discount-driven competition marked the end of the broad-based growth era, with K-shaped divergence becoming the clearest hallmark of the sector. Yet the stronger the headwinds, the more clearly one can see who is growing on inertia and who is standing firm on capability. On October 21, ANTA Sports (02020) released its third-quarter 2026 operating data, validating its resilience with results that outperformed the broader market. During the period, the group maintained steady overall sales momentum through its mature multi-brand matrix and precise operational strategy, with the Other Brands segment led by Descente and Kolon continuing the strong momentum from previous quarters. More notably, against an industry backdrop of widespread promotional traps, ANTA Sports maintained healthy inventory levels and discount discipline, laying a solid foundation for fourth-quarter growth. It is clear that even as the mass market faces pressure, ANTA's resilience remains evident.
Multi-Brand Matrix Sustains Stability as Counter-Cyclical Value Is Validated Again
In the third quarter of 2026, Goldman Sachs channel surveys confirmed the overall weakening of China's sportswear sector. Goldman Sachs noted that the sector was broadly soft in Q3, with most brands continuing to face pressure and widespread declines in retail performance, rising discount and inventory pressure in the mass market, and some brands intensifying promotions through clearance activity. Meanwhile, brand performance showed clear K-shaped divergence, with premium and professional brands enjoying notably healthier inventory and sell-through than mass brands. Against this backdrop, ANTA Sports' third-quarter overall performance continued the steady pattern of the first half and held its ground in the headwinds with data that beat the broader market. Among the highlights, although ANTA Brand and FILA Brand performed below second-quarter levels, both maintained a positive trajectory on a high base of approximately RMB 30 billion in annual revenue. According to research reports, across the first three quarters, ANTA Brand posted low-single-digit positive growth and FILA Brand maintained mid-single-digit positive growth, with both brands' sales trends improving month by month in the third quarter and recording solid year-on-year positive growth during the National Day holiday, a marginal improvement particularly rare amid broad industry pressure. At the same time, in a volatile industry cycle, the structural advantages of the ANTA system became further apparent. Other brands represented by Descente and Kolon continued to benefit from the structural opportunity of the outdoor lifestyle boom, achieving 25% to 30% year-on-year retail sales growth in the third quarter and maintaining over 30% positive growth across the first three quarters combined. Kolon was especially impressive: even as competition in China's outdoor segment intensified, its third-quarter retail sales still approached 30% year-on-year growth, maintaining high-quality operating characteristics of high sell-through, high sell-out, and low discounts. The counter-trend growth of these brands is the best proof of the success of ANTA Sports' multi-brand matrix strategy. Moreover, against a backdrop of intensified industry clearance, ANTA did not follow the tide of aggressive promotions but instead maintained restraint in discount strategy and healthy inventory levels, underpinning its resilience. According to a research note from SPDB International, retail discounts for ANTA Brand and FILA did not deepen significantly year-on-year in the third quarter; on inventory, ANTA also maintained healthy levels, achieving high inventory turnover through deeper DTC model penetration and precise supply chain management while avoiding the risks of inventory buildup. In light of this, SPDB International noted in its report that entering the fourth quarter, with Singles' Day and Double Twelve providing consumer catalysts, combined with the continued high growth of the outdoor matrix and marginal recovery of the main brand and FILA, ANTA's Q4 sales are expected to outperform Q3, and the full-year target remains achievable. It is evident that, supported by its multi-brand matrix, high-tier brands such as Descente and Kolon continue to deliver operating quality superior to the industry, and with healthy channel inventory, the counter-cyclical value of ANTA Sports' group operating model has been validated once again in this round of industry reshuffling.
Technology Forges a Differentiated Moat as Technology Compounding Takes Effect
Of course, the long-distance race in sports brands ultimately comes down to competition in technology and product strength. This simple judgment is being repeatedly validated by ANTA with gold medal after gold medal. At the Nagoya Asian Games, the Chinese sports delegation won 169 gold medals, 43% of which came from the 20 national teams sponsored by ANTA, covering competition gear ANTA provided for gymnastics, weightlifting, swimming, athletics, and other events, meaning ANTA's "Champion Dragon Uniform" and specialized sports equipment underwent rigorous real-world testing in top-level competitive scenarios. If the figure of 43% is treated merely as a footnote to sponsorship scale, its most core informational value is wasted. What it truly marks is a proven downward-transfer pathway, namely that these national team technologies are expected to further translate into quantifiable commercial value. Over the past decade, ANTA Sports has accumulated more than RMB 20 billion in R&D investment, converting top-tier technology into mass-market products, which is precisely the company's core differentiator from pure sponsorship-oriented brands. When the underlying technologies of gear that helps national team athletes break through limits are transferred to mass running shoes, training equipment, and outdoor product lines, consumers gain professionalism validated by champions, and these champion-endorsed technologies are being converted into purchase reasons in the mass market. This logic manifests on Jack Wolfskin as another kind of differentiation that is even harder to replicate: not pushing a single ultimate technology to the highest premium, but making technology "just right." In the third quarter, Jack Wolfskin's global renewal strategy was substantially implemented, with "Mountain House Supply Station" themed stores in Changchun and Shenyang opening first, replicating European alpine hiking scenes and allowing consumers to complete a miniature hiking experience as they move through the space; this concept will gradually be rolled out in Beijing, Shanghai, Munich, Zurich, and other cities. On the product side, Jack Wolfskin focused on the core scenario of "traverse hiking" and launched the "Traverser" shell jacket series. Crucially, this involves the rational application of technology: long-distance traverses emphasize enhanced protection and durability, medium and short hikes focus on lightweight comfort, and city-to-wilderness transitions balance convenience with design sensibility. It does not push a single "ultimate technology" to the highest premium but instead gives users at different stages gear that is "just right." At the same time, the pace the group has set for Jack Wolfskin is equally pragmatic: China's business to gradually achieve break-even by 2027. Maintaining such patience with a brand that needs two to three years to refine products and channels is itself evidence of strategic resolve. From this, it is not hard to see that in an industry generally contracting and turning conservative, the technology compounding effect of ANTA Sports is continuing to amplify. Every gold medal on the field, every pair of running shoes on the shelf, every shell jacket on the mountain trail points to the same answer: push professionalism to the extreme, then make that excellence accessible to the masses. This is both ANTA's technological strength and the source of its resilience through cycles.
Betting on Puma, Anchoring Long-Termism Through Globalization
True long-termism is never a bet that ignores risk, but rather a proactive wager on future structural opportunities after understanding the tides of the cycle. The counter-cyclical resilience ANTA Sports demonstrated in its third-quarter report is its current confidence; the Puma equity closing finalized on October 7 is a layout for a more distant future. On October 7, ANTA Sports officially completed the closing of a 29.06% equity stake in Puma, becoming its largest shareholder with a cash consideration of EUR 1.5055 billion. This cross-border transaction is a highly imaginative step in ANTA Sports' globalization strategy and a key move in its long-termism chessboard. China's sports footwear and apparel sector has long entered stock-market competition, with price wars, inventory pressure, and cyclical fluctuations becoming the norm, and the growth ceiling of a single market is visible to the naked eye. To break free from the constraints of the domestic cycle and open a second growth curve, globalization is an unavoidable question for leading brands. Following Amer Sports, the move on Puma is another key piece of ANTA's globalization strategy, marking the group's steady advance from a domestic sports leader toward a global sports giant. Looking further, unlike a model of controlling consolidation and deep operational dominance, ANTA Sports is only the largest shareholder this time and does not obtain control, making this a patient value investment. Puma has deep professional assets and global event resources in football, motorsport, running, and other fields, and has built a stable customer base and distribution system in mature European and American markets, while ANTA Sports' greatest strengths in China market operations and DTC direct retail capabilities can precisely fill the competitiveness Puma urgently needs. ANTA Sports positions this transaction as a "value investment," and the market widely believes that, based on the integration experience with Amer Sports, whose revenue grew at geometric multiples after acquisition and empowerment, Puma's room for improvement in the China market is enough to generate reasonable expectations for synergies. As Puma completes ANTA's map across global mass sports, trend sports, and football, ANTA's globalization matrix is becoming increasingly three-dimensional and complete. The consensus of institutions such as CICC and SPDB International on this transaction is also clear: the transaction is reasonably positioned, cash flow arrangements are prudent, and the group's dividend policy will not be shaken. In an industry environment where many companies chase short-term hits and focus on quarterly reports, the willingness to position for longer-cycle, higher-barrier global assets is itself the most vivid footnote to long-termism.
Conclusion
The third quarter's industry environment reminds the market that sports footwear and apparel has never been a straight-line upward track. ANTA Sports' layout rhythm during the industry trough precisely reveals the strategic logic of a mature group: invest in the future when others are contracting, and anchor long-term value amid short-term fluctuations, which carries long-term resilience against market cycle risks. Behind the 43% of Chinese national team gold medals is a technology moat built through years of R&D investment; Jack Wolfskin's "just right" philosophy points to a precise response to consumers' real needs; and the Puma closing opens long-term space for global synergies. ANTA Sports stated it is confident in achieving its full-year business guidance and realizing its 2026 profit forecast. For investors and the market, the current focus may shift from single-quarter sales fluctuations to a more fundamental question: when the industry landscape is reshaped, what position will ANTA Sports occupy in the global sporting goods map. Based on the current strategic layout and execution rhythm, the imaginative space in the answer far exceeds the anxiety brought by short-term fluctuations.
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