Anta "Jogging," FILA Gets Back on Track

Author**|Xie Yunzi**

Editor** | **Zhang Fan

Cover Source** | **Visual China

Anta’s growth structure is being reshaped, reflecting the differentiation of sports brands across different consumer tiers.

Recently, Anta Sports released its 2025 financial report, with the group’s total revenue reaching 80.22 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.3%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 13.59 billion yuan, a decrease of 12.9% year-on-year.

The financial report explains that the decline in net profit is due to Anta Group’s holding of Amer Sports going public in 2024, which recognized a large one-time gain, thereby boosting the comparison base. Excluding this factor, Anta Sports’ net profit attributable to shareholders increased by 13.9% year-on-year.

Looking at the brands again, including Descente and Kaluo, “other brands” have become the main drivers of growth.

In the previous year, Anta Sports’ “other brands” category grew by 59.2% year-on-year, reaching 17B yuan. Among them, the high-end brand Descente, focusing on “skiing, golf, triathlon,” achieved over 10 billion yuan in annual revenue. Anta Group Executive Director and Co-CEO Lai Shixian revealed at the earnings release that Descente’s revenue grew by 35% year-on-year, with store efficiency exceeding 2.7 million yuan.

On the other hand, the outdoor brand Kaluo, known as the “internal representative style,” saw its cash flow in 2025 surpass 6 billion yuan, a nearly 70% increase, with store efficiency exceeding 2 million yuan.

Lai Shixian stated that Kaluo has achieved breakthroughs in core categories beyond apparel. For sports brands, footwear revenue share can to some extent reflect the technological level of sports professionalism. During the reporting period, best-selling products like Kaluo hiking shoes and trail running shoes supported footwear category revenue growth of over 140% year-on-year.

Image screenshot from Anta Sports financial report

In 2016, Anta established a joint venture with Japan’s Descente and Itochu Corporation, gaining exclusive rights to operate the brand in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau. The following year, the company also relied on a joint venture model to acquire Kaluo’s operational rights. Over the subsequent years, these two brands continued to ferment and became the “outdoor main force” supporting the group’s growth after Amer Sports’ IPO.

Compared to these two brands, FILA, which once supported half of Anta Sports’ revenue and even surpassed the main brand, has become a textbook “negative example.” Under the impact of economic downturn and consumer segmentation, this mid-to-high-end brand focused on the middle class fell into a quagmire of negative growth.

The financial report shows that in 2022, FILA’s revenue was 28.47B yuan, a decrease of 1.4% year-on-year. Subsequently, FILA entered a deep transformation period, with market positioning becoming more high-end, clearly focusing on “elite sports” such as golf, tennis, and running.

In January 2025, FILA underwent a “new and old” leadership transition. "Key executive"姚伟雄, who had led the management of ANTA KIDS and FILA FUSION, retired at the age of retirement and was succeeded by Jiang Yan, who proposed the “ONE FILA” strategy. The goal is to consolidate the high-end sports fashion positioning and promote brand upgrading through marketing, merchandise, and retail.

This includes becoming the exclusive official sponsor of tennis shoes and apparel for the China Open, hosting the “FILA GOLF Women’s Elite Tournament,” and focusing on functional lightweight running shoes to increase footwear revenue share.

On the channel side, FILA is also exploring new store formats, launching flagship stores like FILA TOPIA No. 1 and FILA GOLF “Master Club.” Most importantly, FILA is increasing investment in high-performance fabrics, functional design, and technological R&D, introducing high-end technologies such as COLD BLACK cooling technology and carbon fiber structures into its “three elite” products. Of course, this has directly increased production costs, and combined with intensified e-commerce promotions, the brand’s gross profit margin has fallen to 66.4%.

However, the “ONE FILA” strategy has begun to show initial momentum. The financial report indicates that in 2025, FILA’s revenue reached 34.75B yuan, a growth of 6.9%, comparable to 2024.

In fact, globally, sports brands that started with “high-end fashion” have nearly saturated the market share. In recent years, many trend brands or product lines, including Adidas Originals and China Li-Ning, have also sought to leverage “professional sports” to provide more support for brand high-endization. In such a context, FILA may also face competition from other brands within the group.

An industry insider told 36Kr that Anta Sports has a “horse racing mechanism” in certain niche segments.

For example, both FILA and Descente focus on golf. From a price perspective, FILA GOLF is more “affordable,” while Descente is more high-end, but there is still some overlap in their user bases.

Image screenshot from Tmall APP

In contrast, the main brand Anta, representing mass sports, has more moderate growth.

During the reporting period, Anta’s main brand achieved revenue of 30B yuan, with only a 3.7% year-on-year increase, which is nearly the “worst performance” in recent years.

Anta’s main brand revenue growth rate, charted by 36Kr based on public data

Anta Group management explained that, on one hand, the main brand has already become a super-large brand with revenue exceeding 300 billion yuan, entering a stage of steady development; on the other hand, the mass sports market and the price positioning make market competition more intense.

In 2025, the main brand also reformed its channels, deploying different store formats for different consumer groups. These include large-scale hypermarkets covering all categories, called “Super Anta”; focusing on professional sports and high-end experience, “Anta Arena”; high-end commercial district positioning, “Anta Hall”; and targeting mass consumers, “Anta Lighthouse.”

After losing the “strategic partner” status with the Chinese Olympic Committee, “Anta Champion Stores” have evolved from initial “Olympic experience spaces” to mid-to-high-end segmented stores focusing on “elite outdoor sports,” with prices mainly between the main brand and FILA.

36Kr chart based on public data

Undoubtedly, the main brand Anta is actively innovating, though market acceptance remains to be tested. In addition to the five major store formats mentioned above, Anta has also planned or piloted concept stores such as Anta Women’s Stores, Children’s Wind Chase Stores, Crazy Box, and Running Theme Stores.

By the end of 2025, Anta’s main brand in China will have approximately 7,203 stores, an increase of 68 compared to the end of 2024. Overseas, Anta also owns 241 single-brand stores.

According to the latest plan, Anta Group aims to reduce the number of domestic main brand stores to 7,000–7,100 by 2026; simultaneously, it will accelerate its overseas expansion, especially in Southeast Asia, with a target of opening 1,000 retail outlets before 2028. Additionally, FILA’s total store count will be reduced to 1,900–2,000 this year.

This may indicate that Anta Sports is entering a phase of structural contraction and optimization.

36Kr chart based on public data

**At the earnings conference, Ding Shizhong, Chairman of Anta Group, stated, "In a large base, we need to look at all dimensions and see if market share has increased. According to third-party data, Anta Group (excluding Amer Sports) increased its market share in China by one percentage point last year to 21.8%, further expanding."

He also emphasized that, in the process of managing multiple brands, Anta has gradually accumulated its multi-brand operation capabilities and better understands how to run multiple brands.

In 2025, Anta Sports fully acquired the German outdoor brand Jack Wolfskin for $290 million; recently, the group also announced the acquisition of the German brand PUMA. Due to the multi-brand strategy, Anta Sports’ inventory level has risen to 137 days, an increase of 14 days year-on-year. Meanwhile, the pressure on direct sales through its DTC channels has also increased, further testing the company’s overall operational management.

After the financial report was released, Anta’s stock price slightly declined; since 2026, the company’s stock price has fallen over 7%. As of March 30, 2026, Anta Sports closed at HKD 74.85 per share, with a total market value of HKD 209.329 billion.

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