Strong: Growth in both sales & profits
ADIDAS AG (ATR: ADS)
Sports giant Adidas released its first quarter ‘strong’ result in April-end.
The global sportswear and activewear segment delivered a resilient start to Q1 2026, with major brands such as Adidas, Asics and Amer Sports reporting strong growth in both sales and profits ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026 demand.
However, performance remained uneven across the sector as tariff uncertainty, currency pressures and softer wholesale demand continued to affect several global players.
The reported quarter generated currency-neutral revenues of €6,592 ($7,671.34) million versus €6,153 (47,160.46) million in Q1, 2025, an increase of 14 per cent, reflecting the strong momentum of the Adidas brand. The strengthening of the euro against several currencies led to an unfavourable translation impact of more than 6 percentage points, or around €350 million in value terms, during the quarter.
On currency-neutral basis, footwear revenues increased 4 per cent, performance revenues rose 29 per cent, and lifestyle revenues grew 6 per cent during the quarter, driven by increase in both Originals and Sportswear.
The company reported an 11 per cent increase, reaching €484 ($563.25) million compared with €436 ($507.39) million in Q1, 2025, in net income from continuing operations. This led to basic and diluted EPS from continuing operations of €2.70 compared with €2.44 last year.
Company’s 2026 outlook projected currency-neutral sales to increase at a high-single-digit rate, reflecting growth of around €2.0 billion in absolute terms, and an operating profit to increase to around €2.3 billion.
ASICS CORPORATION, INC. (TYO:7936)
Tokyo stock exchange-listed Asics corporation, Inc. delivered a ‘strong’ first quarter of 2026.
For the three months ended March 31, 2026, net sales of Asics stood at ¥270.2 ($1.70) billion, delivering an increase of 29.7 per cent (y-o-y), operating profit amounted to ¥60.7 ($0.38) billion, up 36.5 per cent, and operating margin increased by 1.1 percentage points to 22.5 per cent. Both net sales and operating profit achieved growth consecutively, and increased across all categories.
Profit attributable to owners of parent increased by 47.2 per cent to ¥46,569 ($293) million mainly due to the impact of an increase in net sales and profit.
The company maintained its forecast of consolidated business results for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2026: a 17.2 per cent growth in net sales to ¥950,000 million; and, a 20 per cent rise in operating profit amounting ¥171,000 million, with basic EPS of ¥153.91.
AMER SPORTS (NYSE: AS)
Amer Sports, Inc. announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2026, ended March 31, 2026, on May 19, 2026.
Compared with first quarter of 2025, revenue in Q1, 2026 increased 32 per cent to $1,945 million, or 26 per cent on constant currency basis, inclusive of 33 per cent increase in technical apparel, 42 per cent increase in outdoor performance, and 13 per cent increase in ball & racquet sports.
Amer Sports, a global group of iconic sports and outdoor brands, including Arc’teryx, Salomon, Wilson, Peak Performance and Atomic, delivered growths across all profitability metrics. Gross margin increased 210 basis points to 59.9 per cent, operating profit increased 50 per cent to $321 million, and, operating margin increased 200 basis points to 16.5 per cent; while, adjusted gross margin increased 200 basis points to 60 per cent, adjusted operating profit increased 46 per cent to $339 million, and adjusted operating margin gained 160 basis points to 17.4 per cent. Additionally, adjusted net income attributable to equity holders of the company increased 47 per cent to $218 million, which is $0.38 adjusted diluted EPS.
Assuming the higher IEEPA tariff rates that were in place before the February Supreme Court ruling are in place for all of second quarter and the remainder of 2026, the company’s guidance for full 2026 expects: reported revenue growth of 20 to 22 per cent, assuming 200 to 250 basis point benefit from favourable foreign exchange impact at current exchange rates; gross margin between 59.0 and 59.5 per cent; operating margin of 13.4 to 13.7 per cent; and, fully diluted EPS of $1.18 to $1.23.
A SPECIAL MENTION: Goldwin, Inc. also delivered a ‘strong’ financial result for the full year 2026 ended March 31, 2026, growing both in sales and profits. Since this report evaluates the first quarter performance only, Goldwin does not feature in this assessment.
Moderate: Growth in either sales or profits
GILDAN ACTIVEWEAR, INC. (NYSE & TSX: GIL)
Montreal-based Gildan Activewear, Inc. announced results for the first quarter ended March 29, 2026 and maintained its full year 2026 guidance, on April 30, 2026.
Delivering a ‘moderate’ quarter, the company reported net sales of $1.17 billion from continuing operations (The HanesBrands Australian Business classified as ‘held for sale’ hence declared ‘discontinued operations’), growing 63.8 per cent over the prior year, in line with the guidance of approximately $1.15 billion.
The company generated gross profit of $278 million, or 23.9 per cent of net sales, versus $222 million, or 31.2 per cent of net sales, in the same period last year. Adjusting for an inventory fair value step-up charge of $106 million recorded as part of the HanesBrands acquisition, adjusted gross profit was $385 million, or 33.0 per cent of net sales compared to 31.2 per cent in the prior year.
However, the company generated an operating loss of $1 million in reported quarter, compared to income of $130 million in the prior year. The reported quarter plunged to a net loss of $65.8 million from net profit of $84.7 million in Q1, 2025. Contribution of ‘discontinued operations’ in this loss was $10.7 million.
For the second quarter of 2026, net sales from continuing operations are expected to be approximately $1.6 billion.
For full year 2026, the company maintained its guidance: Revenue of $6.0 billion to $6.2 billion; adjusted operating margin of approximately 20 per cent; capex to come in at approximately 3 per cent of net sales; adjusted diluted EPS in the range of $4.20 to $4.40, an increase of approximately 20 to 25 per cent y-o-y; and, free cash flow to be above $850 million.
PUMA SE (ETR: PUM)
Herzogenaurach-based Puma SE reported 1 per cent currency adjusted sales drop and 6.3 per cent reported sales decline to €1,863.8 ($2,168.30) million for the first quarter of 2026, compared to €1,989.8 ($2,315) million during the same period of 2025. The currency adjusted drop was supported by inventory clearance. Headwind in currencies, especially in the US dollar, Turkish Lira and Argentine Peso, caused a reported sales decline of 6.3 per cent. Channel wise, wholesale business decreased by 2.8 per cent while DTC business grew by 3.8 per cent.
Gross profit margin increased by 60 basis points to 47.7 per cent against 47.1 per cent in Q1, 2025, supported by reversals of inventory reserves, lower freight costs, and a higher DTC share, partially offset by wholesale promotions, product and regional mix effects as well as currency effects.
EBIT rose 19.6 per cent to €51.9 million, including € -12.6 million in one-time effects, driven by a higher gross profit margin and reduced OPEX. This resulted in EBIT margin of 2.8 per cent, up from 2.2 per cent of last year.
Profit from continuing operations amounted to €26.5 ($31) million, compared with €1.1 million in Q1, 2025, resulting in an EPS yield of €0.18, up from €0.00 in Q1, 2025.
The company also confirmed its full year 2026 outlook: currency-adjusted sales to decline in the low-to mid-single-digit percentage range; operating result (EBIT) to stay between € -50 million and € -150 million; and, the planned capital expenditures of around €200 million.
GEOX S.P.A. (BIT: GEO)
On May 13, 2026, Geox reported Q1, 2026 sales of €165.3 ($192.37) million, registering a drop of 12.5 per cent at current exchange rates and 12.6 per cent at constant exchange rates, when compared with sales in Q1, 2025. On a comparable basis the decline is 10.3 per cent. Footwear product category contributed 90 per cent to the quarter’s total sales.
Biadene di Montebelluna-based Geox S.p.A. is a leading brand in classic and casual footwear listed on the Euronext Milan market managed by Borsa Italia (BIT).
Despite the decrease in sales, the rationalisation and cost efficiency measures, mainly implemented during the H2, 2025, generated savings in the operating cost structure of around €10 million. These actions enabled Geox to achieve an adjusted EBIT higher than budget expectations in the first quarter, making it a ‘moderate’ performance.
For FY2026, the company expects the adjusted EBIT margin to be in line with plan expectations (2 to 3 per cent), and bank debt to range between €60 to 70 million, also supported by the planned optimisation of production, inventory management and working capital cash flows.
Weak: No growth in sales & profits
COLUMBIA SPORTSWEAR COMPANY (NASDAQ: COLM)
Columbia Sportswear Company, a multi-brand global leading innovator in outdoor, active and lifestyle products including apparel, footwear, accessories, and equipment, announced first quarter 2026 financial results for the period ended March 31, 2026, on April 30, 2026.
Net sales in the quarter were relatively flat, decreasing 3 per cent on a constant-currency basis, at $779.0 million from $778.5 million for the comparable period in 2025. Sales growth in most of international markets was offset by a decline in the US due to a lower US wholesale Spring 2026 orderbook and lack of inventory to fulfil first quarter, the company explained.
SG&A expenses rose to $357.1 million (45.8 per cent of net sales), compared to $354.5 million (45.5 per cent of net sales). Consequently, operating income decreased 10 per cent to $42.0 million (5.4 per cent of net sales), compared to operating income of $46.5 million (6.0 per cent of net sales).
Adding to the ‘weak’ performance, net income declined to $34.3 million, or $0.65 per diluted share, compared to net income of $42.2 million, or $0.75 per diluted share, for the comparable period in 2025. Net income and diluted EPS included a favourable impact of $4.7 million and $0.09 per diluted share, respectively, from foreign currency translation.
The company also released financial outlook for its second quarter, and revised full year 2026, with the assumption that current US tariff rates will continue through July 2026 before returning to rates approximate to levels that were in place prior to the Supreme Court’s tariff ruling.
The company’s financial outlook for Q2, 2026 includes net sales expectation of $600 to $610 million; operating loss staying 5.5 to 4.5 per cent of net sales; and, diluted loss per share between $0.46 and $0.37.
For full year, net sales remained unchanged from an increase of 1.0 to 3.0 per cent, resulting in net sales of $3.43 to $3.50 billion; gross margin was revised to contract up to 20 basis points resulting in gross margin of 50.3 to 50.5 per cent of net sales; and, operating margin also revised to be 6.7 to 7.5 per cent of net sales, yielding diluted EPS in the range of $3.55 to $4.00.
A SPECIAL MENTION: Under Armour also delivered a ‘weak’ financial result for the fourth quarter and full year 2026 ended March 31, 2026, with no growth in sales and profits. Since this report evaluates the first quarter performance only, Under Armour does not feature in this assessment.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SB)
