Xu Yang resigns as CEO of ANTA brand; main brand retail transformation enters review period.

Anta's main brand has had a sudden "change of leadership."

On July 15, Anta Group confirmed to Wall Street News that Xu Yang, former CEO of the Anta brand, resigned from his post due to family reasons. The group's executive director and co-CEO, Lai Shixian, will act as Anta brand CEO from today, fully responsible for the daily operation and management of the brand.

The group has approved Xu Yang's resignation and said he will be "given another position." At the same time, Anta emphasized that the established long-term development strategy for the main brand remains unchanged.

Xu Yang was a rare marketing-oriented leader within Anta.

After joining Anta in 2006, he was in charge of the basketball division and around 2019 transferred to become the head of Arc'teryx Greater China. In March 2023, Xu Yang returned to Anta's main brand, becoming the first Anta brand CEO not from the sales system.

The most notable move by Xu Yang during his tenure was pushing for updates to Anta's offline retail scenarios.

In the past, Anta emphasized integrating inventory both online and offline to improve turnover efficiency. Xu Yang proposed that the same products, pricing, and channels should no longer be used to cover all consumers; instead, stores should be segmented according to business districts, consumption scenarios, and sports categories.

Following this thinking, Anta launched SV stores targeted at high-end malls and sneaker trend markets, Super Anta for mass family customer segments, as well as ANTAZERO zero-carbon concept stores and ANTA ARENA comprehensive stores.

Offline stores are no longer just sales terminals, but are endowed with functions such as product display, brand upgrading, and user experience.

This transformation bears traces of Xu Yang's experience operating Arc'teryx.

While leading Arc'teryx's China operations, Xu Yang pushed the brand into core business districts, expanded flagship stores, and enhanced its professional image through mountain classrooms and community activities.

As the cost of online traffic rises, sports brands are again vying for offline experiences. This retail transformation itself is not surprising.

But Arc'teryx's methods are hard to directly replicate at Anta. Compared to Arc'teryx, Anta covers a broader consumer group, price range and market tiers, as well as a massive distribution channel network. The finer the store segmentation, the greater the demands for exclusive products, inventory configuration, and retail operations.

In 2025, Anta's main brand achieved revenue of 34.75 billion yuan, up 3.7% year-on-year, lower than the 10.6% growth in 2024. Gross profit margin dropped by 0.9 points to 53.6%, and operating profit margin dropped 0.3 points to 20.7%.

The new store formats have shifted from expansion to adjustment.

Anta previously planned to open 160 Super Anta stores in 2025, but as of June this year, the total was about 120.

According to the latest plan, Super Anta will end rapid store expansion in 2026, shifting to refined adjustments in exclusive products, merchandise structure, and retail operations.

Anta's 2025 interim report shows there were 62 SV stores at that time; as of June 2026, the number had shrunk to about 41. The latest store data above is sourced from interviews with Jiemian News and Anta applet statistics.

Anta's main brand confirmed externally that the SV division has been merged into the sports lifestyle shoe division, and both SV and Super Anta have entered a stage of refined operations.

This means Anta has not abandoned scenario-based retailing, but the new store formats have entered a period for validating store efficiency and profitability.

During cycles of slow growth in the footwear and apparel industry, what Anta needs to find is not just a better store model, but a new growth solution for the main brand.

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