Anta "Jogs", FILA Gets Back on Track
Author | Xie Yunzi
Editor | Zhang Fan
Anta's growth structure is being reshaped, which reflects the differentiation of sports brands at different consumption levels.
Recently, Anta Sports released its 2025 financial report. The group's overall revenue reached 80.22 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.3%; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 13.59 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12.9%.
The financial report explained that the decline in net profit was because Amer Sports, which is controlled by Anta Group, went public in 2024, and a large "one-time gain" was recognized, thus pushing up the comparison base. Excluding this factor, Anta Sports' net profit attributable to the parent company increased by 13.9% year-on-year.
Looking at the brands separately, the "other brands" including Descente and Kolon have become the main driving force for growth.
In the previous year, the "other brands" category of Anta Sports increased by 59.2% year-on-year to 16.996 billion yuan. Among them, Descente, a high-end brand focusing on "skiing, golf, and triathlon", had an annual turnover of over 10 billion yuan. Lai Shixian, an executive director and co-CEO of Anta Group, revealed at the performance press conference that Descente's turnover increased by 35% year-on-year, and the store efficiency exceeded 2.7 million yuan.
On the other hand, Kolon, an outdoor brand known as the "representative outfit in the system", also saw its cash flow exceed 6 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of nearly 70%, and the store efficiency exceeded 2 million yuan.
Lai Shixian said that Kolon has achieved a breakthrough in core categories beyond clothing. For sports brands, the proportion of footwear revenue can reflect the technological level of sports specialization to a certain extent. During the reporting period, best-selling products such as Kolon hiking shoes and trail running shoes supported the footwear category's turnover to increase by more than 140% year-on-year.
The picture is taken from Anta Sports' financial report
In 2016, Anta established a joint venture company with Japanese Descente and Itochu Corporation, obtaining the exclusive operation rights of the brand in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, and Macau. The following year, the company also obtained the operation rights of Kolon through a joint-venture model. In the following years, these two brands continued to develop and became the "outdoor mainstays" supporting the group's growth after Amer's independent listing.
Compared with these two brands, FILA, which once supported half of Anta Sports' business and even outperformed the main brand, has become a textbook "negative example". Under the influence of the economic downturn and consumption grading, this mid - to high - end brand focusing on the middle - class group has once fallen into the quagmire of negative growth.
The financial report shows that in 2022, FILA's revenue was 21.523 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.4%. Immediately afterwards, FILA entered a deep transformation period, and its market positioning became more high - end, clearly focusing on three "elite sports": golf, tennis, and running.
In January 2025, FILA had a leadership change. Yao Weixiong, a "key figure", retired from the position of President of the Greater China region of the brand due to reaching the retirement age. Jiang Yan, who had previously led the management of ANTA KIDS and FILA FUSION, succeeded him and immediately proposed the "ONE FILA" strategy, aiming to promote brand upgrading in terms of marketing, products, and retail on the basis of consolidating the high - end sports fashion positioning.
This includes becoming the exclusive official sponsor of sports shoes and clothing for the China Open Tennis Championships, hosting the "FILA GOLF Women's Elite Tournament", and focusing on developing functional lightweight running shoes to increase the revenue proportion of footwear products.
At the channel level, FILA is also exploring new store formats, successively launching the FILA TOPIA No. 1 benchmark store, the FILA GOLF "Master Club" store, etc. In addition, most importantly, FILA is also increasing its investment in high - performance fabrics, functional design, and technology research and development, and introducing high - end technologies such as COLD BLACK cold - black technology and carbon fiber structure into its "three elite" products. Of course, this has also directly pushed up the production cost. Coupled with the increasing intensity of e - commerce promotions, the brand's gross profit margin has dropped to 66.4%.
But in terms of results, the "ONE FILA" strategy has initially shown potential. The financial report shows that in 2025, FILA's brand revenue reached 28.469 billion yuan, with a growth rate of 6.9%, which is comparable to that in 2024.
Actually, globally, the market share of sports brands that started with "high - end fashion" is almost saturated. In recent years, a number of trendy brands or product lines, including Adidas Originals and Li Ning in China, also hope to provide more support for brand high - endization through "professional sports". In this situation, FILA may also face competition from other brands in the group.
An industry insider once told 36Kr that Anta Sports has a "horse - racing mechanism" in some niche markets.
For example, both FILA and Descente focus on golf. In terms of price, FILA GOLF is more "affordable", while Descente is more high - end, but there is still a certain overlap of users between the two.
The picture is taken from the Tmall APP
In contrast, the main brand Anta, which represents mass sports, has a more gentle growth.
During the reporting period, the main brand Anta achieved revenue of 34.754 billion yuan, and its revenue only increased by 3.7% year - on - year, which is almost the "worst performance" in recent years.
The revenue growth rate of Anta's main brand, charted by 36Kr based on public information
The management of Anta Group explained that on the one hand, the main brand Anta is already a super - large - scale brand with a revenue scale of over 30 billion yuan and has entered a stable development stage; on the other hand, the mass sports market that Anta targets and its price range face more intense market competition.
In 2025, the main brand Anta also carried out channel reforms, laying out different store formats according to different consumer groups. Among them, there are the "Super Anta" similar to hypermarkets, covering all categories; the "Anta Arena" focusing on professional sports and high - end experiences; the "Anta Hall" targeting high - end business districts; and the "Anta Lighthouse" aiming at the mass consumer market.
After losing the status of the highest - level "strategic partner" of the Chinese Olympic Committee, the "Anta Champion Store" has also changed from the initial "Olympic experience space" to a mid - to high - end niche category store focusing on "elite outdoor sports", with prices mainly concentrated between Anta's main brand and FILA.
Table made by 36Kr based on public information
Undoubtedly, Anta's main brand is actively innovating, although the market acceptance remains to be verified. In addition to the above five store formats, Anta has also planned or piloted concept store formats such as the Anta Women's Store, the Children's Chase - the - Wind Store, the Crazy Box, and the Running Theme Store.
As of the end of 2025, the main brand Anta had 7,203 stores in China, an increase of 68 compared with the end of 2024. In the overseas market, Anta also has 241 single - brand stores.
According to the latest plan, Anta Group plans to adjust the number of domestic main - brand stores to 7,000 - 7,100 in 2026; at the same time, it will accelerate the layout in overseas markets, especially in Southeast Asia, with the goal of opening 1,000 retail outlets by 2028. In addition, the total number of FILA stores will also be reduced to 1,900 - 2,000 this year.
This may mean that Anta Sports is entering a stage of structural contraction and optimization.
Table made by 36Kr based on public information
At the performance press conference, Ding Shizhong, the chairman of the board of directors of Anta Group, said, "With a large base, we need to look at all aspects and see if the market share has increased. According to third - party data, Anta Group (excluding Amer Group) increased its market share in the Chinese market by one percentage point to 21.8% last year, further expanding its market share."
He also emphasized that in the process of operating multiple brands, Anta Group has gradually developed its own multi - brand operation capabilities and has a better understanding of how to manage multiple brands.
In 2025, Anta Sports wholly acquired the German outdoor brand Jack Wolfskin for 290 million US dollars; not long ago, the group also officially announced the acquisition of the German brand PUMA. Affected by the multi - brand strategy, Anta Sports' inventory level has increased to 137 days, a year - on - year increase of 14 days. At the same time, the direct - to - consumer (DTC) direct - operation pressure of Anta Sports is also increasing, which will further test the company's overall operation and management level.
After the release of the financial report, Anta's stock price decreased slightly; and since the beginning of 2026, the company's stock price has fallen by more than 7%. As of March 30, 2026, Anta Sports closed at HK$74.85 per share, with a total market value of HK$209.329 billion.
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