Growth engines collectively downshift, Anta enters a narrative vacuum period.

2025, Anta Sports delivered a performance befitting its leading status: annual revenue reached 80.219 billion yuan, up 13.3% year-on-year, marking its fourth consecutive year as No.1 in China’s sports footwear and apparel industry. However, if the focus is shifted from “scale” to “structure,” the changes in growth momentum can hardly be ignored. The growth rate of the main brand slowed to 3.7%, FILA grew 6.9% year-on-year, maintaining only low single-digit expansion at nearly 30 billion yuan in size, making it hard to continue serving as the group’s “engine”. In recent years, real growth has been supported by the "other brands" segment, represented by Descente and Kolon—this segment saw revenue surge 59.2% year-on-year to 16.996 billion yuan; Descente’s turnover surpassed 10 billion for the first time, becoming the group's third 10-billion-level brand. But the capital market’s response was not enthusiastic. What triggered market concerns may be the 2026 performance guidance: low single-digit growth for the main brand, mid-single-digit growth for FILA, while “other brands” drop from nearly 60% high growth to above 20%. With the DTC transformation, Arc'teryx capitalization, and Descente outbreak in recent years, Anta built a clear growth narrative: continual incubation of new growth curves through multi-brand acquisitions and refined operations. But as of now, the growth engines that have taken turns over the past few years are entering a synchronous slowdown phase. High-growth sources are collectively slowing down, while new variables are still in the investment phase. For Anta, growth is continuing, but the next chapter is currently missing. **Expected Slowdown** Firstly, it needs to be clear that this is not a disappointing financial report. In 2025, Anta's revenue crossed 80 billion yuan, maintaining relatively stable profit levels thanks to cost optimization, with solid fundamentals. Some believe the company's currently conservative growth guidance is more about expectation management rather than a clear weakening on the demand side. Lin Wenjia, an analyst at Pu Yin International, believes Anta's conservative guidance is mainly for “expectation management.” Despite facing high base pressure in Q1 2026, with a lower base in Q2, as long as industry demand is steady, a sharp drop in turnover growth is unlikely. Based on this, it is judged that both main and other brands are likely to outperform the cautious targets set by the company. But precisely because “fundamentals are not significantly deteriorating,” the market has turned more attention to structural changes. First is the "scissors gap" in profit structure. In 2025, Anta’s overall gross margin declined slightly by 0.2 percentage points to 62%. FILA, to strengthen its professionalism and improve product function and quality, saw its gross margin drop by 1.4 percentage points to 66.4%. The main brand’s gross margin was dragged down by the increasing proportion of e-commerce revenue. More telling is the marginal weakening of profitability. In the second half of 2025, the main brand’s operating profit margin dropped to 18.3%, falling below the long-maintained 20% range. Against the backdrop of tepid recovery in footwear and apparel consumption, intensified competition, and increased investment, the profit space in the mass market is being compressed. These changes further affect channel strategy. Despite the main brand’s gross margin of 53.6% still being higher than peers, as professional products are offered at mass market prices, expectations for margin improvement are limited. In 2025, the main brand’s stores grew by just 68 to 7,203. The 2026 guidance range is 7,000–7,100 stores, implying a net reduction in scale. The focus shifts to high-efficiency models like “Super Anta” and “Anta Hall,” aiming to boost per-store output rather than pure expansion. **As the main brand and FILA jointly contribute over 70% of operating profit, their “steady growth” is both support and constraint: they set the earnings foundation but can hardly offer further flexibility.** **The “other brands” segment, which surged ahead in the past two years, is proactively shifting gears.** Although Descente delivered outstanding results in 2025 with turnover exceeding 10 billion and average monthly per-store efficiency over 2.7 million yuan, its 2026 expansion pace has clearly slowed, with net new store guidance dropping sharply from last year’s 30 to just 4–14. Kolon has taken over as the fastest-growing scale brand in the group: in 2025, its turnover exceeded 6 billion yuan, up nearly 70% year-on-year, with per-store efficiency also surpassing 2 million yuan. Unlike Descente, the company has not set a similar “10 billion scale” timetable for Kolon. This, to some extent, reflects management’s restraint: as the outdoor dividend marginally recedes, Anta prefers to control the pace rather than rapid volume expansion. **In contrast, new variables “Jack Wolfskin” and “PUMA” remain in earlier stages.** Jack Wolfskin just established its “all-scenario professional hiking” brand positioning, opening stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hefei and upgrading image and channels—store expansion is expected to advance gradually in 2026. Since the brand is in early reshaping, short-term losses may further increase. For PUMA, Anta’s rights are mainly focused on China’s distribution and operations, rather than full acquisition, meaning limited autonomy in brand restructuring. The market sees Anta’s acquisition of PUMA as more of a defensive move in the international sports fashion track. From a time perspective, both Jack Wolfskin and PUMA are still in the “capacity-building period” and unlikely to contribute significant revenue increments in the short term. This gives Anta in 2026 a relatively rare state: old engines are slowing, star engines are exercising restraint, and new engines have yet to take up the baton. Growth continues, but the narrative gap has already appeared. **Powering Up for the Next Phase** A temporary narrative vacuum does not mean Anta is entering a “dormant” phase. On the contrary, at a time when the growth logic needs to be reconstructed, the company needs to advance multiple paths simultaneously to find new sources of certainty. Firstly, the outdoor track is returning from “style-driven” to “sports-driven”. In the past few years, the rapid growth of high-end brands like Descente and Kolon has largely benefited from the “Gorpcore” trend—functional products being highlighted in daily and fashion consumption. As this dividend gradually fades, consumer focus returns to product performance and professional scenarios. Against this backdrop, Descente continues to invest in professional activities like skiing, golf, and triathlon, strengthen its technical barriers in high-performance sports, and sponsors China’s national alpine ski team and triathlon team. Kolon is building “professional outdoor” brand recognition by linking with niche scenarios such as trail running and climbing, becoming the official sponsor of China’s national climbing team and deeply involved in the Ninghai Trail Challenge (UTMB event). Secondly, in the context of intensifying competition in the mass sports track, the main brand must continue to strengthen its professional sports narrative and answer why consumers should choose Anta. In 2025, Anta invested about 2.5 billion yuan in R&D, the R&D expense ratio rose to 3.1%, and plans to maintain double-digit growth in 2026, focusing on “carbon-neutral fabrics”, “smart wearables”, and other cutting-edge areas. **Anta in 2025 is also pushing for the gradual realization of globalization—not only by acquiring international brands, but also by actively “going global”.** In the 2025 annual report, Anta disclosed overseas revenue details for the first time: income exceeded 850 million yuan, increasing about 70% year-on-year, with over 60% from Southeast Asia. In Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the company is promoting channel rollout via “joint ventures + regional general agents,” opening over 100 stores and establishing initial brand recognition in core business districts. According to professionals in the sports footwear and apparel industry, unlike the domestic channel expansion approach, Anta emphasizes connecting with local sports ecosystems overseas, building brand interaction with local communities through sponsorships of sports organizations, events, and athletes. For example, at the start of 2026, Anta became a partner of the Singapore Olympic Council and provided equipment support for its winter sports delegation; it previously sponsored the Singapore Basketball Association and participated in the local sports talent training system. Anta is also experimenting with more diversified overseas channel strategies. In August 2025, Anta collaborated with China Duty Free Group to enter the Cambodian market, with CDFG running local stores, marking Anta’s first attempt at “light asset overseas expansion” using an established retail system. Regionally, Southeast Asia is still the current bridgehead, with the company pursuing a “thousand-store plan” while extending to the Middle East and Africa. In Europe and the US, it is working with channels like Foot Locker and JD Sports; in September 2025, the Anta brand opened a flagship store in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, further integrating into the global mainstream sports consumption system. Overall, what Anta can do now is not to quickly replicate “another Descente,” but to steadily advance along three pathways: **Return to professional ability in products, rebuild sports mindshare in the main brand, and implement globalization in regions.** These approaches may not deliver explosive growth in the short term, but they determine whether the company can make it through the current narrative gap and accumulate a new foundation for growth in the next phase. **Risk Disclaimer and Legal Notice** The market is risky, investment needs caution. 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