Arc'teryx and Salomon see strong sales; Amer Sports bets growth on women and footwear.

The growth story of Amer Sports is shifting from explosive growth of a single brand to synergistic expansion across multiple brands.

In the first quarter, Amer Sports achieved revenue of $1.945 billion, up 32% year-on-year; adjusted gross margin improved to 60%, and adjusted operating profit margin rose to 17.4%.

The core drivers of this round of growth remain Arc'teryx and Salomon.

Among them, the technical apparel segment including Arc'teryx generated first-quarter revenue of $885 million, a year-on-year increase of 33%, with adjusted operating profit margin reaching 26.4%.

As the most profitable brand within the Amer system, Arc'teryx continues to play the role of "profit anchor." Unlike the earlier reliance on growth in Greater China, in this quarter Arc'teryx achieved double-digit growth in all four regions, with North America seeing a clear acceleration.

Management mentioned in the conference call that women's products continued their strong momentum in the first quarter, growing faster than any other category of Arc'teryx. The brand is attracting new female consumers, and the engagement and spending level of existing female users is also rising.

Management stated that as the brand continuously improves fit, style, and function, and expands its product lineup leveraging its design strengths, female consumers' brand affinity for Arc'teryx is increasing.

For high-end outdoor brands, the women's market not only represents new customer segments but also implies more everyday dressing scenarios. Compared to the less frequent demand of professional mountaineering and skiing, the frequency of usage for commuting, travel, urban outdoors, and light sports is much higher, and is more conducive to supporting long-term repeat purchases.

Salomon is currently Amer's most flexible potential growth engine.

In the first quarter, the outdoor performance segment including Salomon generated revenue of $714 million, up 42% year-on-year, with adjusted operating profit margin reaching 20.4%.

The company explicitly mentioned in the conference call that footwear has become a very important growth engine for Salomon. Its growth momentum is expanding across regions and channels, covering both sports fashion and professional sports product lines.

The former is the key entry point for Salomon into bigger markets. For example, series such as XT-6 and XT-Whisper retain outdoor functionality while making it easier to enter everyday dressing and trend consumption contexts.

This allows Salomon's growth to no longer solely depend on the professional running, hiking, or trail crowd. Especially among young and female consumers, Salomon is building connections in ways rarely seen in traditional outdoor brands.

At the same time, the company mentioned that the new GRVL series is helping Salomon break into the running shoe market in unprecedented ways; in North America and EMEA, Salomon is gaining traction in professional running channels.

By region, Greater China is Salomon's fastest-growing market in the first quarter. The brand's offline expansion in Greater China is also clearly accelerating.

By the end of the first quarter, Salomon's total number of stores in Greater China reached 302; the company expects a net addition of 45 Salomon stores in Greater China for the full year 2026, higher than previous plans.

However, this is not simply "opening more stores."

The company emphasized that Salomon's store opening strategy in China is shifting from quantity expansion to store upgrades: choosing more central shopping malls, larger stores, and reserving more display space for apparel and accessories. The newly opened Salomon flagship store at Chaoyang Heshenghui in Beijing exceeds 8,000 square feet, offering a complete footwear and apparel product line and a more comprehensive consumer experience.

This is similar to Arc'teryx's approach in China over the past few years: first building brand awareness through core cities and high-potential stores, then gradually enhancing all-category sales capabilities.

After footwear became a traffic entry point, soft goods like apparel, bags, and socks are expected to become important levers for increasing average transaction value and profit margin.

In the first quarter, DTC revenue of the outdoor performance segment including Salomon grew 57% year-on-year, mainly driven by new stores and improved store efficiency. Salomon stores in Greater China, Asia Pacific, and Americas performed particularly well.

This also provides important incremental value to Amer's overall DTC channel expansion.

In the first quarter, Amer's DTC revenue reached $1.002 billion, up 44.6% year-on-year, accounting for more than half of total revenue; wholesale revenue grew by 21% year-on-year.

The significance of the rising DTC proportion is not just about channel structure changes. Direct stores and proprietary e-commerce help Amer better control pricing systems, shape brand experience, and accumulate consumer data.

For premium brands like Arc'teryx and Salomon, amplifying DTC will directly improve gross margin and operational quality.

Of course, high growth is accompanied by investment pressure. Store expansion, IT infrastructure, marketing, and product development all require ongoing capital expenditure support. The company expects capital expenditure for the full year to be around $400 million, mainly for retail expansion and IT infrastructure investment.

In the first quarter, Amer's inventory increased by 33% year-on-year to $1.688 billion, slightly higher than the revenue growth rate.

After exceeding expectations in the first quarter, Amer raised its full-year revenue growth guidance from 16%-18% to 20%-22%. Going forward, whether Arc'teryx and Salomon can maintain brand momentum and channel quality during expansion will determine the sustainability of this round of growth.

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