adidas AG (OTC:ADDYY) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

adidas AG (OTC:ADDYY) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript October 29, 2025

adidas AG misses on earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $1.5 EPS, expectations were $1.6.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the adidas AG Q3 2025 Conference Call and Live Webcast. I am Maura, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it’s my pleasure to hand over to Sebastian Steffen, SVP IR and Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

Sebastian Steffen: Thanks very much, Maura, and good evening, good afternoon, good morning, everyone, wherever you’re joining us today, and welcome to our Q3 2025 results conference call. With me here today is our CEO, Bjorn Gulden; and our CFO, Harm Ohlmeyer. Bjorn and Harm will take you through the highlights of the quarter, our financials, the outlook. And afterwards, we will open up the floor for your questions. As always, I would like to ask you to limit your initial questions to 2 in order to allow as many people as possible to ask their questions. And now before I hand over to Bjorn, we want to get everybody in the right adidas mood with this video. Let’s go. [Presentation]

Bjorn Gulden: Hello, everybody. I hope you enjoyed the live showings of what the brand has done over the last 3 to 6 months because we are actually very proud of what we have achieved. Also, very proud and happy what happened last night, where 2 of our teams, Germany and Spain, won each of the semifinals in the so-called Nations League. And we’ll then need to play the final and it’s always cool to have 2 teams wearing the 3 stripes play each other in the final, which happened pretty often, especially on the women’s side. Also happy actually about what we did achieve in Q3. I think the momentum that we have seen globally even strengthened. And we feel that our teams in the different markets have been very active and has been a lot of positive feedback also when it gets to the activations we have for the future, for example, the workup that you see out there.

What also very, very, what should I say, close to today happened was the Shanghai Fashion Week, where we showed up in China in a way that I think we’ve never done before. And last weekend with the ComplexCon, where we showcased both the jellyfish coming from our friend, Pharrell. And we had many, many versions of Superstar also with our partners from Hellstar. And I think all of you have followed the discussion about Bad Bunny and the Super Show, it happened to be at the same time where we had a Mercedes call up with him, which also did very well. So a lot of fashionable things happening, which is very, very positive for us. And also before we go into the numbers, important for us. We were again named the top employer for those working in the fashion from the TextilWirtschaft.

And again, that’s a research with ask the employees and the hearing that your employees are happy is always a great confirmation for us in management. And then the Forbes Research who looks at 400 of the biggest companies in the world when it gets to how it is to work for them when you share a woman, we also came up in the top. And again, a very positive story for us confirming that we are a good company to work for. The numbers, you’ve probably been through them many times. Last week, we reached EUR 6.63 billion in Q3, which is the highest quarter that we ever had, which, again, then for the adidas brand was a growth of 12% currency-neutral. Again, another very strong quarter when it gets to the margin at 51.8%, which was 50 basis points up.

And then an EBIT of EUR 736 million, which then is an EBIT percentage of 11.1%, which, again, we are very, very happy with. If you then take Q3 to the 2 first quarters, you get to the EUR 18.7 billion in sales, 14% up for the adidas brand, a margin close to 52%, and then an operating profit of EUR 1.892 billion which is again about 10%. And so again, when we look back, we are very happy with these results. When you look at the regional growth, the North America grew only 8%, year-to-date 12%. I did say in the press call that if you take accessories out, you will see that both Apparel and Foot were up 14% and 11%, and that reason for the accessories being down is that we have a reset in the accessory business that will hit us this quarter. And it has to do with distribution.

It also had to do with deliveries. But I don’t think you should read too much into it. I think it was heavily exaggerated in some of the press. This is not something that is very crucial for our business. It is a short-term blip. And again, remember, accessories is 7% of our business, so you shouldn’t worry too much about it. Look at Europe, the home market, we were skeptical last year that the growth will slow down because it was 9%, now it’s back to 12%. We are 11%, what should I say, for the year, and a very strong development, again, both in our own stores and then especially on the performance side around different markets in Europe. Greater China. Again, you probably see a lot of, I would say, tough numbers from our competitors. We grew again double digit and are very happy with the development being up 12% for the year.

And you probably know that the profitability also in China is improving. So we are very, very happy with the development that we currently have in China. Same with Japan and South Korea, up 11%, 14% for the year. Historically, 2 very strong markets for us where we had some issues, but very, very strong development now with new management in both of the markets, and feel we are in a very, very good way with very, very strong like-for-like numbers in our own retail in both those markets. Lat Am, still on fire. We are now a market leader in many of the LatAm markets, including Brazil. And as you can see, ’21 and ’24, extremely happy with that development. Emerging markets, of course, always a little bit mixed bags because it’s a group of countries where you have quite some issues, but the team are our entrepreneurs and 13% and 17% confirms that.

And that gives you then the Q3 number of plus 12% and plus 14% for the year, in a world, which I think you agree, is not the easiest to maneuver in. So very happy with where we are after 9 months. Wholesale growing at 10%, shows you the support from our partners. And again, happy with that. Own stores, up 13%, we are comping positive both in concept stores and in factory outlets. And we have added net around 85 stores in the last 12 months, and we will get back to that in a second. E-com, up 15% shows you that the digital side of the business is also working. And some of the pure players are actually doing better than the brick-and-mortar guys and so is also with us because we can showcase news quicker and wider than you can do in brick and mortar.

That gives you the split of 63-37 and you see brick-and-mortar and e-comm than 22-15. I think we agree that, that’s a globally a very healthy split. I talked about the stores. I think we have said to you now for a couple of quarter that what we are doing is that we’re trying to open, I would say, impressive brand stores in bigger cities and in bigger trade communities. And instead of having 1 store buildup, we’re trying to explore the possibilities in the different markets, as you can see here. And we are investing a lot in the creativity in the stores and I hope when you travel around the world that you get to see some of them extremely happy with the way we look. And they’re also, of course, when we open a big store that looks like this, the numbers are also very impressive.

As long as we fill it with the right product, which I think we have done lately. Footwear, again, you were skeptical. I think it was 9% in the last quarter. Now it’s back again to double-digit, 11%. We have talked about the wish of growing Apparel at the back end of Footwear. So now we are doing that at plus 16%. And then the accessory issue, which, again, I explained that in the U.S., we have kind of a reset when it gets to both the sourcing because it was very China driven and the distribution and that caused that in this quarter, the numbers were negative, and that had an impact on the global accessory business. The performance accessories, meaning, for example, soccer balls is up. And I think I can promise you that you will see accessories very quickly coming back again.

And I think I quoted I said we need to clean up something, but I think people, again, overdramatize that there’s nothing that you should be concerned about that Accessory is only up 1%, knowing that, as you see here, Accessory is only 7% of the business. And I think we have said that when you have brand heat and you could focus on it, you should get more growth on Accessories going forward. So I think we have some reserve in our pocket, and you shouldn’t look upon this negative. Footwear being 57%, Apparel 36%, again, as long as Footwear is above 50%, I think we are in good shape brand-wise. And then very, very important. Even if we have turned the company around on the lifestyle side and the heat, we have said that we have to celebrate sport.

And I think when you see the activities from ultra marathon to marathon to running 100,000, basketball, soccer, cricket, whatever, I don’t think we have ever been more visible in sports, and we’re also producing a lot of content that is visible all over the world because that is what we want to do. That shows also up in the numbers. Our performance, meaning the Sports business is up 17%. Remember, we have told you that there are 4 categories that we need to win globally; football, running, training and basketball. I think you see in football that coming out of comp numbers from the euro last year, we are very, very strong now with our Footwear taking share, I might be arrested saying we are market leader, but that’s my feeling on everything I can read.

Very happy with the players and also very happy with the product. And then for those of you who follow soccer closely, the Liverpool launch was fantastic globally, although they haven’t played very well lately, losing I think, 5 out of the 6 last games, the sales of Liverpool has been tremendous compared to what they used to sell. And again, I think we all know that Liverpool is a street culture city in the U.K., very relevant for the kids. We are extremely happy with that relationship and the way it was executed. Also very proud of the Ballon d’Or. You know that’s where they give the prizes to the best players in the world. They give out 5 prizes. We won them all. We had the best male player with Dembélé. We had the best young player with our friend, Yamal.

We had the best female player in Aitana Bonmatí. We had the best young female player in Lopez, and we actually also won the best goalie with Donnarumma also; 5 out of 5. I guess we will have to pay a heavy bonus to our sports marketing people because I don’t think that’s ever happened before. What shows you, why I’m proud and positive is that we were also able, the day after the Ballon d’Or to honor both Dembélé in Paris with both what should I say, outdoor marketing, as you see here and the store and the same in Barcelona with Bonmati. So again, the teams were then actually gambling on that they will win. They didn’t have the insight. And we were able then to activate this overnight. So when people woke up, this was what you would see in those 2 cities.

And I think this is the energy that we actually need as adidas then to win. And the same thing, we have launched the World Cup Ball. We used a lot of other celebrities and sports people to do that. I have never seen such a campaign ever done organic and I can also report to you that the sellout of the ball has been fantastic. And you have to remember, we have even started with the jerseys. The jerseys for World Cup will start to go on sale on November 6. So that’s when you will start to see some impact of World Cup coming into the numbers, which will be very, very positive. Running, we have told you for the last 2 years that we are building our running portfolio up, changing both the collections and also, of course, going back again to running specialty to build credibility and the business.

When you follow the marathons and the half marathons and other races you see we win half of them, very proud of what Sebastian Sawe did in Berlin. The weather was too warm; if not, he would have beaten the world record in sub 2 hours. He didn’t because it was 27 degrees, but we will save that for next year. We also won the women’s class with Rosemary. And again, I think it’s not the weekend, where we don’t win a major race somewhere because we have the best runners and the best product, that is also proven by this fact, we did set the world record on 100k. Sibusiso won in 5:59:20 and you can calculate the average pace, it’s unbelievable. I think he runs 333 per kilometer. And again, with a shoe especially made for it. And again, this is part of our innovation pipeline to do extreme things that we can then feed into the more commercial line.

And our Adizero line, which starts then with the Prime X and then down to the Adios Pro 4 is the best line today for racing shoes and speed shoes. And we are taking market share and we’re growing this business very, very heavily. And again, this has been the strategy from the beginning that we start at the top and then we start to scale it into every day running and to comfort running. What you see here is new. This is what will go to market next year starting in February and then scaling up during the year. We have developed something called Hyper Boost, which is a new boost material, 40% percent lighter than the old Boost. Boost was the most successful midsole construction that we had, the most successful foam, but a little bit heavy. That’s why we have been working for 3 years now to establish this.

These are the sign directions, not necessarily the way the shoes will look, but it gives you some kind of feeling how we’re going to attack the comfort training area. And then we will also use the foam as a platform into other areas in the performance side and also into Lifestyle. Don’t forget that all the successful Lifestyle running shoes we had in the past, both those from Yeezy, but also NMD, for example, Ultra Boost was Boost shoes and that’s why this is so crucial for us going forward. And we are very proud that we now have developed this. Training is a huge category that might be executed different from region to region, but what we are doing is that we’re using our top athletes from different sports and then showcasing them in training in our products.

We can tell that story everywhere. And what we also have done because training today consists of both running and strength, we have combined then the Adizero line with the Dropset line and then creating shoes that are both runnable and stable for strength, gym work, and that’s then the Adizero Dropset, which you will see next year and which has received a lot of orders already from the retailers who love it, and we are very, very positive about that development. Maybe a surprise to you, we are then taking the originals into sport. We have seen, especially on the female side that we connect to that young consumer through our original line with the use of threefold and three stripes. And it was then a natural way then together with some of our retail partners then to develop a functional training line in functional fabrics and functional fit also with the design ethics of original.

You see some of the samples here. And needless to say, the demand for this for next year is huge. And it’s one way for us to differentiate ourselves in the training area where there’s a lot of brands that have established themselves lately. But again, very, very positive feedback from the retailers around the world. Basketball, we all know we’re a market leader, but we also know we have to invest in it. We have in the design and development of the product for a while now, had a very special language. And it’s great to see that this language is now coming through also in sell-through. All our signature shoes are now doing well and the players that we’re using are also extremely popular. And we have used them now not only in the U.S., but also in other markets.

They’ve all been to China during the summer, and we see a lot of positive effect for them being active actually selling not only our performance product, but selling the brand as relevant in the culture. And then we have said it the way adidas did the brand, we want to be visible in all sports and also local sports that are relevant. That is why we are making products for more sports, and we also produce more content for those sports so that we get back again the credibility and authenticity that we used to have, and you see some examples of that here. In that trend is also track and field. For a while, we lost the visibility. We are now back again. And if you watch the World Championship on Tokyo, you saw we had more federation. There were more three stripes on the apparel and a lot more feet with our spikes and special shoes.

That will continue because for us, track and field is the core of all sports also in the Olympics, and that’s why you will actually see a wider investment for us going forward as more federations are actually able to change into our brand. Then finally, when it gets to sport, we have said to you many times, we need to be more American. We need to be a sports brand also in America. You can only do that by investing in the so-called American sports. That is, of course, starting with colleges. It is baseball, it is American football. It is also basketball. You see some of the people we have signed now over the last couple of months. We have also started to get feedback that we are attacking the clear market leader. That’s not even the strategy to be visible and actually have personalities that perform.

And I think that is also what we have achieved. The college sport in the U.S. is very, very special, very emotional and everybody who’s gone to college is a big fan of their college and especially in American football, that is important. And you know that this college team draw attendances up to 100,000. You see that we are now starting to get a pretty impressive portfolio. And in that, what should I say, strategy of getting more visibility and getting more into the college merchandise business, we have then added both Tennessee and Penn State, which are 2 huge colleges when it gives both to the performance and also to the merchandising value. What we also have done is that we started to combine the American sports. So here, you see on the left side, Anthony Edwards and his basketball look.

We have then made a clip. So Travis Hunter debuted in the NFL. He’s the Heisman Trophy winner of last year. He is, I think, the only one who plays offense and defense, at least in his rookie season, and he’s then playing in a clip that is designed the way Anthony Edwards basketball shoes. So a pretty cool thing, and it shows what we can do going forward in the U.S. Short about Formula 1. You know great success when it gets to the agreement with Mercedes, a lot higher sales than I think both we and the Mercedes thought, a lot of collapse, a lot of interesting stuff happening. And then on the left side, we announced that for next year, we will also do Audi. And again, we see a huge demand from wholesalers already in those 2 setups. And then, again, I’m repeating myself, but we are, of course, trying to take everything we do on the pitch in the stadium then to the street.

And I think that’s the magic of ours. We are using our athletes and our, what should I say, teams on both sides and are trying then to create the street culture out of not only basketball, but also other sports. We have talked about the need for doing this in football, and it’s finally happening. We have never seen so high demand for soccer-related apparel as we do currently. And a lot of non-soccer fans are actually wearing retro jerseys or even the current jerseys or product that is coming out of the soccer world. And I think I’ve mentioned to it a couple of times that the Oasis collab, for example, are soccer pieces that have been batched up and the demand has been unbelievable for people that has not any connections to football. And then on the footwear side, EVO SL, our $150 Evo Adizero shoe without the carbon plate meant to be a running shoe, but gone widely on the lifestyle side, best-selling running shoes currently and the best named running shoes in many, many markets, a great development for us.

So when do they get to lifestyle, you saw performance growing at 17%, Lifestyle now growing at 10%. Again, this was always the strategy that you build the heat through marketing and lifestyle, you sell shoes, then you hope that it will also go into performance and then you start to commercialize apparel that has actually happened. And two, the haters, who are the people who don’t like it, Terrace is not over. We have grown Terrace every quarter. So Q3 was actually the highest quarter ever also of the Samba. I think the key to it is, of course, that you’re not selling the white black and the black white more and more and more because you’re actually putting, what should I say, a limit on it. But when you work on materials and you work on different, what should I say, Collabs and you keep the excitement in it, all Terrace shoes are doing extremely well.

And especially in certain markets now, the Spezial is doing great. And as you probably know, Spezial has never been a lifestyle shoe before. So — it’s not over, and it’s a huge business, and we will manage this business probably longer than many of you had expected. The Campus was more a freebie that came unplanned with the heat of the brand. We did then put a lot of shoes in the market. It worked perfectly. But we also said we will then start to limit the Campus because we were waiting for the Superstar to come. And let’s face it, the Superstar is from a construction point of view and from a target consumer probably closer to the Campus than to anything else. We talked about Low Profile. Yes, it has been growing and growing. It’s not as big as some people thought.

But I think I can promise you that the same thing is here. You need to invest in SKUs, you need to invest in materials, then it will continue to grow also into the spring of ’26. And then we have the Superstar, which we again told you we were delaying. But right now, we are pushing it for fall, especially now in Q4 and then into spring next year with global campaigns, a lot of activations. And again, although the language is global, the content is very local. And then may be new to you, you will start to see the Triple White coming back. There are clearly signs that Apparel is going more preppy and more college and then Triple White will be again coming back. And as you know, the Stan Smith is probably the typical shoe to go to when that is happening.

So we have limited the pairs heavily. You won’t find Stan Smith discounted anywhere, but we will start during next year then both with Collabs and loading up that shoe because we want to be ready when these things are going commercial. And then the final thing on the lifestyle that we talked a lot about, Lifestyle Running. Yes, we admit that all the brands have had a big trend, both on ’90s and 2000 running and that we had many options starting with the retro thing all the way into 3D printed shoes. Many of these shoes are now starting to get volume. None of them are the winners right now, except for EVO SL. But when you look to the left, you see Adistar, where you will see the Jellyfish coming out of Pharrell. You will see takedowns of that hitting the market, and you will also start to see a lot of 2,000 retro running shoes from us with Open Mesh and Metallics, which are already selling very well, and we will start to scale them because we see that the demand is there.

And then the final thing where people laugh a little bit is Lifestyle Football. We talked about it in Apparel. You will see soccer-inspired product going also fashion, where we put soccer uppers from the past or also present, and we put them on different constructions. Very different opinion if this is going to be commercial or not. We will have limited pairs in the beginning, and then we will scale it if we see the demand is there. But at least on her, it seems like there is demand there also to scale it. Then on Apparel, we have great success, especially with Her, especially very colorful, the use of 3 stripes, of course, a lot of them are not original. But I think where we have been even better than anybody else instilling innovation in materials.

We have denim. We have a lot of knit constructions, and we have a lot of innovation that has not normally been in the sports industry. And this is especially where then people online has a huge success because they can showcase it very quickly, and we’ve been very quick to the market. Very, very proud of this. Grace Wales Bonner has helped us a lot. I think she had a huge impact on the success of the Samba, to be honest. She has now been made the head creative for Hermes Men, a great honor to her, but I’m also happy to report she will not leave us. She will continue to work with us because we have a fantastic relationship with her, and this will, of course, help us. In general, collabs, a lot of discussions. If there are too many, has it lost this interest?

No, it hasn’t. If you look at this page, you see some of the ones that we work with. Down left, Hellstar has been great for us in the last couple of months. I mean, Chavvaria has been great for a while. And in general, I think we all have to agree that you need Collabs. You just need to make sure that they fit the market where you’re using them. and that you never do too many at the same time. Then at last, accessories. Again, I tried to explain that accessory and performance, great, including soccer balls. All markets actually done well. There is a small clash in the U.S. that we need to fix, and we will fix it. And I’m pretty sure that when we get to next quarter, you will see it fixed already. So don’t read anything into it. That was not the intention.

So with that background, I hand back to Harm, and then Harm will give you the more details about the numbers.

Operator: This is the operator. We are not receiving audio from the speaker line.

Harm Ohlmeyer: Can you hear me now?

Operator: Yes, sir.

Harm Ohlmeyer: Good. all right. Then I’ll repeat it again. Thanks, Bjorn, for the update, and I would like to bring some more details to the financials now in the next couple of minutes. Apologies for the short technical issue here. So as always, we start with the net sales. And as Bjorn said already, record net sales from an absolute point of view in Q3 was EUR 6.6 billion. That has been a great achievement. And of course, the most important number there is 12% currency-neutral growth for the adidas brand. Of course, for the people on the call here, you always look at the 8% currency-neutral, which includes Yeezy in the prior year for the reported number, which is 3%. What we believe is relevant as well to show you the next chart, it’s a lot of numbers on there, but sometimes we probably forget what percentages mean in absolute numbers.

And I want to start on the upper left where we see 17% growth in Q1 for adidas brand and 12% and 12% in Q2 and Q3, so overall 14%. When we look at the absolute numbers in currency-neutral terms, we actually grew EUR 900 million in Q1, EUR 600 million in Q2, and another EUR 700 million in Q3. So we believe it’s important summarize that for the first 9 months, what we actually have achieved with the adidas brand. So it’s a EUR 2.2 billion in constant currencies in the first 9 months. And then, of course, you got to deduct then the EUR 600 million from Yeezy sales last year. And then you have an FX impact so many currencies, that is a negative EUR 600 million as well leading to only EUR 1 billion nominal growth that you see in the P&L being reported.

We believe it’s just right to show these numbers in absolute as well to actually showcase again what our brand and sales teams have achieved with great products and good execution on the sales. When it comes to the gross margin, of course, a great story as well is almost 52% or 51.8% in correct terms. It’s 50 basis points above prior year. This is again a very, very good achievement. And if I go to the details and decompose it a little bit, a huge, huge credit to our sourcing organization, making sure that we get reasonable prices in strategic relations with our suppliers, still some positives on the freight side, even so some of the transportation lead times are complicated in today’s world. The business mix is still positive. And also from a discounting point of view, we did a great job the last couple of years and now it’s stabilizing and still very, very good sell-through of our products when it comes to the underlying drivers.

Of course, you know that FX has still been negative. It’s just directional when you look at the bars here, but we also talked a lot about the tariffs. Of course, they are negative in the U.S. And you see that is a new thing compared to Q2 call that we had some mitigating actions there as well. That led us still to the very, very good gross margins, 51.8%. So very good achievement, and you can imagine where it would have been without the tariffs in the U.S. When I go further down the P&L line, of course, as always, we say, we keep investing into marketing with almost EUR 800 million in Q3 and actually 10% up or 12% of net sales. Great, great campaigns, as Bjorn alluded to earlier, fantastic product launches and relentless opportunities with our partnerships, whether it’s on the cultural side or on the performance side.

So very, very well usage of our marketing. Also on the operating overheads, you see there’s great leverage with minus 8% or 3.5 basis points. And you see for the first time since the third quarter ’21 that we are below 30% when it comes to the operating overheads. Okay. Part of the truth, you might remember also that we had a release in our other operating income with the settlement of Yeezy of around EUR 100 million, and we did a donation of around EUR 100 million in the operating overhead line as well in the third quarter last year. But the real number now, forget about last year, is still below 30% on the operating overhead, which actually leads with a great gross margin to now 11.1% operating profit of EUR 736 million. If I decompose that again from a profitability point of view, similar to what I did on the net sales, great achievement in Q1 with almost 10% already in the second quarter, 9.2%, up from 5.9% and then a very, very good achievement in Q3 with a profitability of 11.1%.

That is a great achievement again to the teams. And when you look at the first 9 months with 10.1%, we actually where we wanted to be in ’26. That’s a great achievement in the first 9 months. Of course, we all know given our guidance that will not be sustainable for this year, but that’s where we wanted to be for next year we achieved in the first 9 months. Of course, there have been some questions below the line as well, and I want to spend some time on this one to explain that more clearer. When I start with the net financial results, you see the EUR 4 million plus last year. So during that quarter, we had some stabilized currencies, whether it’s the Argentinian peso, the Turkish lira or the U.S. dollar was still stronger. So we had some positive effects from an FX point of view, but also from a hyperinflation point of view.

And now the comparison to this year looks dramatic with the almost EUR 90 million. But also there is now a devaluation of the Argentinian peso of the Turkish lira. We all know where the U.S. dollar is right now. So these are the effects that we had in Q3. But it’s also important that — to note that this is normalizing in the fourth quarter again. And well, I wouldn’t have imagined that I talk about the election in Argentina with Milei, but we had our Argentinian General Manager here yesterday as well to give an update. So these are also important events for us as a company. So that’s why we believe that election and the outcome just want to stabilize again in Q4. Similar things on income taxes, was very low last year, but also this year, it’s a pretty much normalized rate with some withholding taxes in there, but that will also stabilize in the fourth quarter.

So 2 notes on this one. In the first 9 months, if you looked at the numbers that the operating profit was up 48% in the first 9 months, the net income was up 52%, and that is something you should expect as well more leverage in Q4 on the net financial results. It’s normalizing. And you can definitely take away today that the tax rate for the full year will be around what you have seen in the first half. So anywhere between 24% to 25%, hopefully closer to the 24%, which would definitely drive the net income faster than the operating profit and respectively, the earnings per share as well. When it comes to the inventories, also that is a topic, 26% currency neutral up. And I would like to move to the next chart very quickly because also that is something that we are not concerned about.

I said it on the last call already, we went probably too low in ’24 with a lot of discipline because we came with a lot of inventories into Q4 — into 2024. So this is where we have a low level last year. We actually made the strategic decision to bring products in earlier, especially World Cup related. So we wanted to make sure that anything around World Cup related, whether it’s [indiscernible] or federations available to remain and continue to remain a reliable partner for our retailers that when the demand is there and of course, where we need to ship in for the launch date that the product is already here. And you know that the supply chains are volatile nowadays. So we didn’t want to take any risk. So we took them early. What’s most important for us internally is that this product is current and with either current this season or for future seasons already, which means spring/summer ’26.

So also there, you will see an update going forward as well in the next quarter where we definitely go in the right direction again. The same is on accounts receivables. That shows the success that we have with our retail partners. It’s not just about D2C, so 22% up. That is not 1:1 the growth in the third quarter, but that’s where we see that we have great relations with our retailers, and that also gives us confidence for the fourth quarter when it comes to the cash generation. But before I go there, most importantly, the operating working capital, I’ve been on this call many, many times. We said if we get below 20% of operating working capital over net sales, we are an excellent company; if we are anywhere between 21% to 22%, we are a pretty good company, and we are still in that range, and we will definitely make sure that we stay within that range and over time, get below the 20% again.

That all led with the investment into working capital that the cash got reduced from EUR 1.8 billion to EUR 1 billion. I also said on a previous call that we expect to generate a lot of cash flow in the fourth quarter. And rest assured, we still believe there’s probably around EUR 800 million to EUR 1 billion of cash flow being generated in the fourth quarter, which is linked to the inventory increase for the World Cup, which will be reduced and also the accounts receivables that we will cash in, in the fourth quarter. So that’s what you should rely on here as well. When it comes to cash and cash equivalents, you see the development here, which led to the EUR 1 billion and also important adjusted net borrowings have been reduced from EUR 5 billion in the second quarter to EUR 4.8 billion.

And just as a side note, some of you might remember that we’re maturing a bond in November and probably stay tuned for that one. We believe we want to refinance that one in due course, which we believe is also a good message to the capital market because once in a while, the last one we had in ’22, we also want to test the market and be a bond issuer in the market once in a while. So that’s what you should not be surprised in the next couple of weeks that this could happen. Overall, when it comes to the leverage, we are very stable, which is important for our rating agencies as well. So also no surprise there regardless of what our cash position is. So overall, very, very confident when it comes to the P&L, when it comes to the balance sheet.

And with that, Bjorn will finish up with the guidance.

Bjorn Gulden: Great, Harm. As you see on this slide, you have seen that many times, we are now into the third quarter, if you will say, some out of 4. We did tell you at the beginning of ’23 that we think that this should be a 10% EBIT business. We gave you the different components. And it’s pretty cool to see that after 9 months in the third year, we basically hit it with the numbers that you see here and are currently showing you that this is a 10% EBIT business model even if we are not doing everything perfect and even if I would say the world is not that easy to maneuver in. What is very, very crucial, I think, in the business model going forward is this, I don’t know what other brands or consumer companies are telling you.

But to be a global brand with a local mindset, I think, is crucial, if you are consumer-focused and for us and also athlete focused, you need to be close to the consumer. And unfortunately, there is no global average consumer, the way many consultants and agencies are trying to sell you, the consumer in different parts of the world has their own, what should I say, taste and willingness and are also influenced by different things. And that’s why it becomes more and more important to be more local, especially between Asia, with China driving it between America and Europe because there are big, big differences, not only in consumer taste and facing of sports and activities, but also now in supply chain, given all the political tension we have.

So again, getting the best people in the market and giving them the authority to make decisions. And in many cases, even the authority to make products becomes important. And then, of course, the role of a headquarter then is, of course, to keep the brand together to provide innovation and concepts. And of course, also maybe the most important thing to make sure that we have the right people in the markets and in the right functions and of course, also provide the systems that we need. And when it gets to creating product, I think this slide is also important for you because we are now making products in all these centers. And these centers are then in addition to having a part of the global, what should I say, creation like LA has for basketball and U.S. sports, they also, of course, have the, what should I say, the clear goal of supplying the local consumer with the products that they need, and that goes for all these centers where you see there are now 5 of them in Asia.

And again, the speed to market by actually producing in China or in India is, of course, much bigger for those local markets than there are for Europe and America, where you have very little production, and it’s not easy to actually find a supply chain who can make footwear for you. So I think you need to be very, very, what should I say, conscious about this development because I think it’s the key to be successful. And I think, for example, our success now in China is because of this setup. We have the ambition to be the #1 sports brand and all our, what should I say, leaders in the market should have the ambition of being #1 in their market. We are, of course, aware of that we will not be #1 in all the markets that will be naive. But if you are hired in Adidas to run a market, you should have the ambition and you should talk to us what you need when it gets to investment and infrastructure to be #1, and then we will together see where we can reach it or not.

There is one exception, that is the U.S. The market leader there is so far ahead of us because they’ve done a fantastic job living the culture, and we have not done it over the time. But we have a clear ambition there to double our business. And we do think with the story of our brand, with the history of the brand and the resources we have that we can start to be a sports brand again in the U.S. with all the things I have explained to you and then also extend that into lifestyle and culture. And that is why we also have a management now sitting in both L.A. and in Portland who has all the tools to do that. And the way we do this globally is, of course, to have the best product. I mean our pipeline and products, I think, has improved a lot.

We have talented and creative people, and we have a great supply chain. It is, of course, also the way we present ourselves in the stores. We have said that we’re using a lot of creativity to actually build stores that are that also connect to the local culture and to the possibility of utilizing what is allowed or not because you see many of these stores would not be allowed to do here in Germany, but the creativity in other markets we need them to utilize. And then very, very important, the activations and the visibility around the world, not only global, but also in the local markets so that you connect with the consumer and you also let the consumer be part of your activation has become much, much, much more important and all the social media and all the platforms and also actually physical events have become tremendously important around the world.

And that’s where you, of course, need a lot of talented people with a lot of energy, and that’s what we have. So back to the end of this, the outlook, you remember our initial guidance for March, double-digit growth for our brand, if you take Yeezy out. If you include everything, high single digit currency neutral and an operating profit between EUR 1.7 billion and EUR 1.8 billion. Where we are now is that we keep, of course, the brand being at double digit. We have narrowed the high single digit to be around 9%. And then we say that our operating profit will be around EUR 2 billion. Yes, we know that we are in a challenging world. I don’t need to repeat that. And we also need again to remind ourselves, we have no Yeezy, neither revenues nor profit in these numbers.

And then the other considerations that you need to have is that we think that the positive side is that we’re better than we expected after 9 months. And the attitude in general from the consumer and from the retailer is actually more positive than we expected. I know somebody reacted to that there were no strong order book in there. But remember, there’s only 2 months left of the order book. So that’s why we took it out. There is not a lot to talk about when you only have November and December open for the order book. So that’s why that’s not removed. There’s nothing other into that number. And then the negative thing, which, again, we have to address. I mean, I know you don’t like us to talk about it. But of course, there is a direct impact on the tariffs.

We told you that the gross impact, meaning how much more duty it would be on the products that we thought we would sell was more than EUR 200 million, and we have mitigated for I would say, almost half of that. So now the estimated negative impact on our P&L, meaning what would the profit be higher if we didn’t have tariffs would be around EUR 120 million. This is not a scientific number because it’s an estimate, right? So you need to be careful when you try to say is it’s EUR 117 million or EUR 123 million because we don’t know. And then what we don’t know, and again, I think maybe we are too honest about this because you read a lot of criticism into it, is of course, that the indirect impact of the tariffs, no one knows. And prices increases, normally consumer buys less, and that is not only in our sector, but in all sector.

And that’s why we don’t know and are flagging it. And I assume that everybody will flag it after a while. I think maybe we flagged it early and got criticized for it, but I do think that’s better to be honest about it than actually trying to hide it. And then, yes, sitting in Europe, there are quite some negative FX impacts when you consolidate your numbers, both on your top line and also on your bottom line, and that’s just the way it is. And I’m sure that you understand that. The good thing about ending ’25 is that we’re going into another great sports year. It starts with the Winter Olympics in Italy, which again is not huge commercially, but it’s a great event that will be having interest also for the smaller sports and the winter sports.

And then we have this fantastic World Cup that will come in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. I would like to say one comment about that, too. We have said that this is a EUR 1 billion business or more. And people say, of course, that’s on top of everything. I mean you don’t know that. I mean it’s obvious that it is — some of that is additional, but it’s never been an event where everything that you sell for an event is on top of everything else. So you have to have that in your mind when you do your math. And then the last slide I will show you is this. When we met the first time at the beginning of ’23, we had the situation over there where we did EUR 300 million. We told you that we had the 4 years plan to get to 10%. And I do think I’m allowed to say that we’re pretty proud of the development that we have done.

Not everything we have done is fantastic, and we are by far not perfect. But I do think you have to admit that we’ve done a decent job in a very difficult market. And yes, maybe the market will always be difficult. So I will continue to say that. But the need to change things, especially in the development of products and in the supply chain and also the way you go to market and change the attitude has been enormous. And I’m very, very grateful and proud of what our people have done. So with that, I hand over to you again, Seb.

Operator: This is the operator. We are not receiving audio from the speaker’s line.

Sebastian Steffen: We’re now ready to take questions.

Q&A Session

Operator: [Operator Instructions] First question comes from Ed Aubin from Morgan Stanley.

Edouard Aubin: So I guess I’ve got 2 questions on Footwear, Bjorn. So the first one is on Classic and Terrace. So did I understand correctly that you said that Terrace was still growing year-over-year in Q3. And if we look ahead in 2026, if you look at the Classic segment, the slide that you showed us, can Classic expand if Terrace contracts and so how you see that? So that would be question number one. And then question number two, still on Footwear, I am sorry. On the opportunity with kind of Lifestyle Running, one of your distributor a few weeks ago, JD Sports, not to name it, showed a slide showing that for them, at least Lifestyle Running is substantially bigger than Classic. So I was just wondering to what extent how much an opportunity this category? Obviously, you’re already making good inroads in Lifestyle Running. but if you can help us kind of size the opportunity, that would be very helpful.

Bjorn Gulden: Two good questions, to be honest. Yes, I said and I confirm that the Terrace Group was actually bigger in Q3 this year than it was in Q3 last year. And that even the Samba from a selling point of view is actually bigger than it was a year ago and that we have continuously grown what you call Terrace, these 3 shoes. Again, I think many people are surprised by it and maybe some of our own people too. But the fact of the matter is that with the innovation that we’ve done on design and materials, we kept it hot. And we have gazillions of different SKUs around the market when it gets to different versions of it. And of course, some market have stagnated and we stopped supplying growth, but other markets are still on a growing trend.

And that was also the reason why we were careful with Superstar. And to be honest, also careful with some of the low-profile side because we didn’t see the need in, as you correctly say, in the classic range to oversupply too many franchises. We are now transferring the Campus volumes into the Superstar because that’s more of the same consumer. And then as I said, when Triple White is coming on, the whole Classic area will get another boost and that is typically then that we will then load on the Stan Smith. I think it’s also correct what JD showed you, although it’s different from market to market, what they call Lifestyle Running is substantially bigger, especially on the male side than the Classic side. But again, many of the so-called Lifestyle Running shoes might from some of our competitors then not be running.

But if you look at it now, we can be very honest. I mean, New Balance and my friends from ASICS have had a big run on shoes from the ’90s and from the 2000. And even Hoka and On to be honest, have with their so-called performance shoes also had a run on the Lifestyle side, maybe for an older consumer depending on where you are in the world. So I agree with you, if you cume all that, the category is actually bigger. And that’s why it’s been so important for us then to put more effort into the Lifestyle Running side, and we have. I mean the EVO SL was meant to be a performance shoe, but it’s then gone Lifestyle also. So that’s a huge volume for us. The SL 72, which is the 70s running has been great for us. And then some of the other running models have been, I would call it, mixed.

What you will see now is that you will, a, see that we are coming out with products around the Jellyfish, meaning the Adistar shoe that Pharrell did with different takedowns. And then we have a series of shoes from also the 2000 with Openmesh and metallics that is already starting to sell. So we will grow in Running Lifestyle in ’26, no doubt about it. Will we be market leader in any other segments? I think that’s too early to say. And then we have to admit that with the success we had in the Classic, you couldn’t expect that we also have the same success in Running, right? There is always a sequential effort here. And then what I’m very, very positive about is, of course, the development of HyperBoost because that form, when we go from performance into lifestyle, you have to remember that all our lifestyle Boost shoes that were new, did well when coming with Boost.

And you should not underestimate that comfort and cushioning, extreme cushioning has a lot to say in that segment. So we are very optimistic about that segment, and that’s why we put so much effort in actually developing HyperBoost. And yes, it’s taken 2.5 years, but that’s why it’s also a very good product. So I think that’s my answer to your 2.5 questions.

Operator: The next question comes from Jurgen Kolb from Kepler Cheuvreux.

Jurgen Kolb: A quick one, just housekeeping for Harm. You guided for — you expected EUR 2 billion of roundabout cash at the end of the year. I guess, with the guidance on free cash flow in the fourth quarter, this is still on and you’re quite confident to achieve that, just to double check here. And maybe on prices, I think on Reuters, there were some comments on your reaction on the tariffs in the U.S. Maybe, Bjorn, you could double check and again, talk us through what you have done so far in terms of the prices in the U.S. and what we shall expect going into 2026 in order to mitigate the tariff impact.

Bjorn Gulden: I can do it first, and Harm can fill in at the back. The mitigation that we have done, which is about EUR 100 million mitigation from where we started with the EUR 200 million plus down to the EUR 120 million. How many components? One is, of course, in the sourcing in the sense that we have worked with suppliers to get better prices of some of these products. It has then been increasing pricing on new products. You have to remember that the price of a product that hasn’t hit the market that is not known. So of course, that’s where you can increase it without getting a negative reaction that you’re increasing. We have tried to keep all carryovers at the lower price points at the same price, so no increase for the consumer, but therefore, better sourcing or more efficient sourcing and then we have increased prices on some of the expensive models because we believe that the consumer and the higher end will be less sensitive to price increases.

And then again, then lifted prices on new models that have never been priced before. So that’s not going to be visible for anybody else than us. And of course, some of the retailers have been part of the development. That’s basically what we’ve done. Now I have to tell you that the price increases you see in the market and that you can read about the question is, are these prices then going to stay for the consumer or are discounts going to go up? And I think when you look at the U.S. right now, it’s pretty heavily discounted. There has been some big brands that have had a lot of inventory. And I think maybe independent of tariffs, there was a lot of discounted products out there and I think that’s what the jury on what’s going to happen when it gets to sales, meaning the value of the product.

And then the margin on the product when it gets to discounting, I think the jury is still out on that because we need to take and counter at the end of the year and then especially at the end of Q1 where most of the products that are then being sold are actually with a higher tariff on the buying price. So I think that’s all I can say to you because everything else is just 100 assumptions, right? We actually feel that we told you very early that the gross impact of this in the financial year of ’25 will be EUR 200 million plus. We have reduced it to EUR 120 million, so we think we have done a good job. And remember, we were very, very early telling you that we have removed China sourcing almost completely from the U.S. So we’re not exposed to this 100% duties that he has done as of November 1.

So let’s see what the other people say, and then we can compare notes. We feel we’ve done what we could do. And again, I actually feel pretty good about it. But how the consumer then in the end reacts on everything happening, I think it’s too early to say.

Harm Ohlmeyer: On your question on the cash on the balance sheet, the EUR 2 billion. I said to the last time, and I confirmed it earlier in the call, will it be exactly EUR 2 billion, depends a little bit on FX and a little bit on the timing. So I wouldn’t have sleepless nights if it’s EUR 1.9 billion or whatever, but the goal is still to collect on the receivables, and that’s what we plan for. So whether it’s EUR 1.9 billion or EUR 2 billion, you know, don’t get sleepless nights over it, but we want to get close to the EUR 2 billion, that’s correct.

Operator: The next question comes from the line of Geoff Lowery from Rothschild & Co Redburn.

Geoff Lowery: Just one question, please, on China. Could you talk a little bit more about what’s powering the performance in terms of product and distribution? Obviously, you’ve done tremendous cleanup work there over the last couple of years, but the outperformance against the market is looking really very marked at this point.

Bjorn Gulden: The strategy in China has been, of course, to compete both against the success of the local brands and, you know, to the Western brands. And we figured pretty quick out that to do that, you need to have more local initiatives and utilize that you have factories in the market so you can go to market quicker and you can actually work with less inventory. So we developed this creation center in Shanghai. We put together a team of Chinese management that also used to work for Adidas in the past and has then worked in other brands to learn how local brands do it and then come back again. And we have, you know, as we speak, between 50% and 60% of the product that we sell, especially on the apparel side, is designed and developed in China.

So they are not the same product as you would then design and develop for America or Europe. On footwear, most of the model are franchises that comes out of the global range, but they might be tweaked when it gets to materials. And then there are certain pockets of product that are only for China, also in the lifestyle, even in originals, and especially in performance. We see that the local brands have brought a lot of quality into price points between [ EUR 80 and EUR 100 ], where we were not competitive. And we have then used the creatives and the developers and the factories to develop them competitive products against that. And we have in those, you call them third, fourth, fifth tier cities where the local brands are dominating, we have started opening stores then which focuses on, I call them this value products and have a special offer for them.

I think our success when you look at double digit growth and also the margin that we have is because that we have changed that model to be local and that we give the authority to very, very good people. And I also have to say that the energy, I think the LatAm team and the Chinese team are probably the two teams that has, in a market, the highest energy when it gets to actually chasing business, when it gets to where the consumer is. So I would say that’s the reason for the success. And I also think it’s the only way in the future to get success. I don’t think you can sit in neither in the U.S. nor in Europe and just design a collection and tell them to sell it. I don’t think that works anymore.

Operator: The next question comes from Wendy Liu from JPMorgan.

M. Liu: I have two, please. One is on the World Cup. I think, Bjorn, you previously mentioned that it will be a EUR 1 billion opportunity. Would you mind sharing a bit more details about the drivers behind this EUR 1 billion, and how does this compare with previous World Cups? This is number one. Number two, I wanted to go back to the 10% EBIT margin target you had for next year. If I look at this by region, it looks to me like it was really like North America where you probably still have a bit of gap. And then I look at Q3 numbers, 12.4% EBIT margin in North America was actually better than previous couple quarters in last year, despite you have this tariff headwind and you no longer have [ EV ]. So I just wanted to ask what were the drivers and what are your expectations about North America EBIT margin into 2026?

Bjorn Gulden: The EUR 1 billion, I think is the number that we have said that we assume that World Cup can bring when we look upon both what we’re selling of replicas meaning connected to the teams and cultural relevant I would say products around World Cup. I think the discussion that some analysts have had is this then fully in addition and what I said is that you can never say it’s fully in addition because you have to remember that the stores, when you put World Cup product in, you take something else out. So you can never say it’s fully, what should I say, in addition. I wasn’t at Adidas in the previous World Cup, so I’m not sure, but I would assume that this is 40% or something higher than what we had before, just to give you a ballpark number.

And the number is not final. As I said, we launched the ball three weeks ago. It’s been tremendously successful, so we might actually take more orders and produce even more than we planned. We are launching the replicas for the home jersey on the 6th of November, so we will see the reaction to that. I will not be surprised when I look at demand around the world that, that will also increase, so the business might even be higher. And we are pretty sure that we will do EUR 1 billion, and I would not be surprised if it is more. When it gets to the 10% EBIT target, I think we’ve talked about that from a global point of view, and it was the assumptions in ’23 that we will keep basically the mix of the business when it gets to D2C and wholesale the same.

And with, of course, the development in certain markets that are higher than they are today, You know that the U.S. market, to get really profitable in the U.S., you need scale, and you can clearly see that our profit margin in the U.S. historically has been lower than our major competitors, and that is just because of scale. The improvement that you have seen this year already compared to last year is, of course, that we are doing a better job. The local, what should I say, development, the investment in American sports, the performance in our own stores, have improved the EBIT margin in the U.S. Having said that, there is a huge upside to that if we get more scale. So it’s clearly a target for us and also our American management, of course, to grow over proportionally in the U.S. and then put some of that into the leverage when it gets to getting a higher EBIT margin.

I think that’s my feedback.

Operator: The next question comes from Warwick Okines from BNP Paribas Exane.

Alexander Richard Okines: I’ve got one on gross margins, one on costs, please. On gross margins, discounting was a fairly neutral dynamic in Q3. Have you reached the limits of what you can do in full price? And then secondly, on operating costs, I wonder if you could just comment a little bit more about what’s happening there. Have you been taking OpEx out of overheads, and if so, have you got any examples of that, or is the cost story more about leverage and the movements in currency?

Bjorn Gulden: You know, the gross margin, that has different components because when it gets to the D2C business, we have been very strong on sellout on inline products. The only place where we’ve been a little bit more promotional has actually been on e-com. And that is because e-com in general has been, you know, I would say aggressive on discount. And we were probably too restrictive on it last year, mainly because we didn’t have enough product. And this year, we’ve been better in supplying product, we have decided to follow certain events more aggressive. But it’s not hugely different, though, because the full price sellout has been very strong. The other discount where you don’t control, of course, is what are the retailers doing.

And depending on how much inventory is in the market from other competitors, and I do assume you are aware of that big competitors have a lot of inventory that the retailers have discounted, And then, of course, that hurts your full price sale because if you are at full price on EUR 100 shoe and the competitor is on 50% on EUR 200 shoe, then, of course, you will sell less. That’s just the math. And we hope, of course, that the inventory level in the trade will go down so that the discounting will be slower. But again, that’s outside of your control. On lifestyle products and on the new performance product, I would say that our sell-through rate has been very good. But of course, in a very heavy discounted environment, you had sometimes a slower sell-through because of the discount level in general.

But that is very different from market-to-market. But sell-through on full price for us has not been the problem, and I think you see that also in our margins, so we’re actually very happy with that. When it gets to the cost, I’m looking at you, Harm.

Harm Ohlmeyer: Yes, Warwick, good question. There’s probably three things I would like to mention. First, I mean, we have been very, very disciplined in the organization around the world because we believe in the past there was a culture of you need to have more people in order to grow the business. And now we put it the other way around. If you do more with one account, whoever the account is, it doesn’t mean you need to have more people, right? And even if you, you know, develop the products, you know, I mentioned earlier, the Oasis product is more a batched up, you know, you know, soccer products and you don’t need more people in order to do an Oasis range, right? So we put a lot of discipline in, you know, what are the commercial opportunities without asking, you know, for more people.

So that has been very disciplined. Secondly, as we said, we have simplified how we run the company overall. We have empowered the markets. It’s a new operating model. And we, of course, there were some tasks that we used to be in headquarters that are now being taken over by the markets or there have been duplications, right? And you know that we had a volunteer relief program at the beginning of the year, so that is definitely something that is contributing to that as well. But it’s first and foremost simplification of our processes, avoiding duplication. And of course, if you do that, we need fewer people, and that’s what you see continuously in the P&L quarter by quarter. Yes, you have a good point. FX helps as well. I mean, that brought the absolute number down in that quarter.

But at the end of the day, I want to highlight again, Q3 is a very clean quarter when you look at this here, and that shows you that we can be below, you know, 30% when we have the right top line, right? So that’s why I believe regardless of any comparison or path or whatsoever, we show in, you know, with a good top line, we have a clean, you know, cost as well, and that brings us below 30%, and we are not done.

Operator: Next question comes from Robert Krankowski from UBS.

Robert Krankowski: I’ve got like two questions. Just first one on the top line, second one on margins. We are almost in 2026 and given your strong confidence around the World Cup, the running category, the lack of easy now in the base, anything that you can see and or any reason why you shouldn’t grow double digit in 2026? And then second one on gross margin, like again, we are looking at the gross margin close to 52%, so upper end of your guidance. And next week, we are going to see all the benefits probably of the mix with upper strong growth, as well as some of the transaction effects coming. So how should we think about the gross margin range? Is it more now 52% to 53%, for example, in 2026? Any comment would be really appreciated.

Bjorn Gulden: You should be a sales guy, right? I think when you look at ’26, we’re not guiding it yet. It’s the same thing always. We are very conservative when we look into the future because we don’t want to disappoint you. We want to bring Q4 behind us. We want to see what’s going on in the world. When you look at the industry and you look at what we think we have in the pipeline, I think you’re right. But the external factors is; a, how is retail reacting to the uncertainty? How is the consumer reacting? And what other political tensions are getting into the way? Who knows? And the reason why I showed you the slide at the end of the presentation, where we’ve gone from EUR 300 million EBIT to EUR 2 billion, is, of course, that we think we have; a, taken risk in the sense that we bought enough and marketed enough to actually get there, because growing double-digit three years in a row is, of course, a risk in an environment.

And secondly, in the transition to the new business model, you have to remember we changed a lot. So I think it’s about, again, how confident are we that we can continue to grow in an environment that they’re uncertain? And how can we make sure that we have a base in our organization and the way we work that is aligning to this growth with a new business model? And I think that’s the only risk factors. I’m 100% convinced that Adidas is a brand that can stabilize over years a double-digit EBIT. And that the growth to take market shares should be double-digit in most markets, depending, again, what else is happening. And I don’t think I can say something else than that because you’re going to arrest me, you know, first quarter if something goes wrong, right?

When it gets to the margin, is it 52% to 53% again? That, of course, depends on where we are growing then. Are we growing in the e-com side ourselves and in the D2C because, you know, we can do that? Then you’re probably right. Are we growing in the markets with high margin like China? Then you’re right. The growth for us in the U.S. is, of course, the one with the lowest margin. That’s the way it is. So it depends, again, on the mix going forward. But in principle, when we said 50% to 52%, we did not believe that we already would be at 52% now, right? So we have achieved this margin higher or quicker than we thought, and not because of the mix but because of the success in the growth and maybe also because all the brands then didn’t have the success that we had.

So, again, there’s many factors. And, of course, you always want us to be very accurate, but it’s very difficult because there’s so many variables. We are taking shares, I think, in all markets currently. We have a pipeline of products that we believe in. But of course we do not know these external factors. And of course we don’t know what the competitors are doing, especially when it gets to being aggressive on discounts and pricing. So I think that’s all I can give you. And I’m looking around if someone wants to add anything.

Operator: Next question comes from Aneesha Sherman from Bernstein Societe.

Aneesha Sherman: I have two please. The first one’s about your running business. It’s been growing at strong double digits all year in contrast to the slowdown that we’re seeing in some other big running brands. Can you remind us how big your running business is and are you seeing any pressure on order books for 2026 given how competitive this category is becoming? And then related to that, my second question is around marketing. So marketing, you’ve ramped it slightly through the year. You’re still guiding for that 12% level, but we’ve now seen some big competitors ramping up marketing, trying to gain share. Do you still think 12% is the right level given the increase in competitive intensity, or is there a possibility you might push that up a little bit higher next year?

Bjorn Gulden: I don’t think Harm will give me more than 12%, to be honest. And I’m not even sure if increasing it will make you more efficient. I mean, marketing is a funny thing because the number itself doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re better. And I think even in our 12% is not like we will look back and say all the 12% we had were invested the best way. So I think there’s room within the 12% to actually do it better. My marketing people will kill me now for saying it, but I think that’s the case. So we don’t have any plans or needs right now to go above 12%. The beauty would be if we could find ways of actually taking the percentage down, but we also don’t have any plans about that because we have said that investment level, when it gets to having the assets, you know, we invest about half of the money in actually having relationship with federations, with teams, with athletes and celebrities and the rest to activate them.

And so far, I think that that’s been a decent number. If that is changing, I mean, you say people are ramping up, and we don’t really see that because, yes, there are some brands who are ramping up, but there’s also someone who’s slowing down. So when it goes to the competitiveness by actually signing things, I feel it’s pretty stable. The best athletes and the hottest celebrities are always getting more expensive. But when you look at the width of it, I don’t really see any big differences. The running business, your question is, again, an interesting one. And to quantify exactly how big running is depends on what shoes do you put in there. But I would say it’s around EUR 2.5 billion, which, again, when you put that into the context, you will see it is a pretty big running brand.

But again, we have created that mostly on the higher end of the pyramid and on the speed thing. And if you look at competitors that have been very successful, they have been much more in the everyday running and especially in the comfort running. And I think we learned from that, and that’s also why this hyperboosting is so important for us because we really, really believe that there are Adidas consumers that love a brand who didn’t have the products available that they would like to buy from us. And all research that we have done shows that. And we believe that the sector of comfort running, because heavy cushioning, instep comfort, and all those things are also things that people are looking for in their non-performance, what should I say, shoes, meaning in the lifestyle and comfort area.

So this hyperboosting is for us very important. We might be a little bit late to the game in your eyes, but we didn’t have it ready yet, and that’s why we waited. And again, since we were growing anyway and running on the high-end side, we also didn’t see the necessity of it. And the third thing is you have to remember we went out of running specialty, meaning that we didn’t have any, what should I say, activities and relationships with running specialty because previous management thought we could go D2C on it. To build that back again, a; to hire people to be in the running communities and also to get the specialty to buy into you again, is, of course, something that takes time. And in many, many markets, we were totally out, and the share we have in running specialty in many markets are still very low.

And as we’re building that with more innovative products and more visibility, of course, we see huge potential in the running category. So that is the category I think that has the biggest potential in performance side to grow in.

Operator: The next question comes from Piral Dadhania from RBC.

Piral Dadhania: My first question is on the top line, and my second question is on share buyback potential. So sorry to have to come back to this, but could you just help us understand perhaps for the first half of 2026 whether the wholesale order books, which make up like 60% of your revenue base, is showing double-digit revenue growth? I think when you took over, Bjorn, you talked about 10% revenue growth through cycle. So is there anything, aside from obviously the external macro, which is very uncertain, but I think that’s true for not just your company but your competitors, is there anything beyond that within your control that would lend itself to a different outcome for ’26? And then the second question is just on the buyback potential.

I think it’s fair to say that the Adidas share price and equity valuation doesn’t appear to be fully reflecting all the strong execution and the performance that you’re delivering, including relative to peers. I think, Harm, that the initial targets when you guys all took over was to reduce the leverage to 1x net debt to EBITDA to build up a gross cash balance to close to EUR 2 billion, which it looks like you’ll achieve either by the end of this year or into the first part of next year. So do we think that a good use of growing free cash flow, especially as the working capital position starts to wind down, as you suggested in your prepared remarks, may be useful in sending a positive signal to the equity markets and to start buying back your stock at a discounted valuation?

Bjorn Gulden: I mean, the simple answer to your first question is no. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t only internal-wise get to the double-digit growth. I think that’s fair. And buyback is not my area of speciality, so I give it over to Harm.

Harm Ohlmeyer: Piral, thanks for acknowledging that the capital market didn’t get our story in full. And that’s probably true. So we actually, we look at that when you look at the share price, right? But, first and foremost, we say we want to invest into the operational business. What we have done, you have seen that in the operating working capital. Secondly, you want to be a solid dividend payer, which is always on the 30% to 50% of the net income from continued operations. And then of course, you know, I have a good, good analogy. And what I said, I was one to have EUR 2 billion of cash on the balance sheet. We either, you know, achieve the year end or with some rounding, you know, getting there in Q1. Yes, there are always some cycles from a working capital point of view.

But you’re absolutely right. So, but that’s definitely something we will look into next year when it comes to share buyback, not this year, unless we believe we want to be opportunistic here or there, and then we want to do something short-term, right? But right now, let’s get to the EUR 2 billion first and then look at that for next year. That’s probably the most logical answer. But we always, you know, look at that opportunistic as well.

Operator: Next question comes from Thierry Cota from Bank of America.

Thierry Cota: Actually, two questions on Q4 and H2 ’25. You’ve said your implied guidance leads to 6% to 7% organic growth rate in the fourth quarter. So what do you think would be the factors of such a slowdown versus Q3, especially when the Yeezy headwind drops to about 1%. And the second question would be on the EBIT. The EBIT guidance, the new one for ’25, implies about EUR 100 million EBIT in the fourth quarter. So what do you think would be the drivers of such a decline versus Q4 ’24? So you’re on your decline when you remove the one-offs that you saw last year. And I would like to ask, would that be linked to the DNA, which it seems was pretty low in Q3? So is there a catch-up that we could expect in the fourth quarter and impacting negatively the EBIT?

Bjorn Gulden: Well, I think as always, Q4 is this quarter where people react to different things, and we are always careful guiding for Q4. It’s always the same because we are dependent on that retailers take their order book. We are dependent on what happens when it gets to discounting on the digital side. That’s why I think historically you always see me guide very, very conservatively on Q4. I think that’s the only reason. And, you know, there might be in the way that we are trying to improve ourselves that we will also have some one-offs that we will do in Q4. So I think it’s just a conservative outlook and the need not to say anything that we actually disappoint you because that’s always in the way we talk. And then I think there was a question to you, Harm, wasn’t there?

Harm Ohlmeyer: Yes, there’s nothing specific on the depreciation that you called out, and that is not the reason for the Q4, but I want to echo what Bjorn said. I mean, when you get ready for ’26, we have achieved a lot in the first nine months, and there’s nothing specific we look at last year as well, or even going back in history, what our Q4 was. There’s some seasonality in this one, but there’s nothing specific we want to call out. So as Bjorn said, I want to make sure that we achieve what we say and then get ready for the World Cup here.

Thierry Cota: Sorry, just a follow-up. The DNA again was particularly in Q3. Was there any particular reason for that? And should we expect a rebound in fourth quarter?

Harm Ohlmeyer: I’m not aware of any specific reason, quite honestly. Let me come back to you then, Thierry, but I could not say there was any specific in Q3 or anything special for Q4 relative to Q3, but — and if you look into this one, I’m not have anything specific.

Operator: The next question comes from the line of Andreas Riemann from ODDO BHF.

Andreas Riemann: Two topics here. One is tariffs. In the past, you stated that the market for takedown versions of tariffs would be larger than the market for original versions of Samba or Gazelle. So today, you didn’t mention that. So how relevant are those takedown versions at this stage? And then what markets is the penetration of the takedown versions already quite high? This will be the first topic. And the second one on the cash flow, Harm, you mentioned the EUR 800 million or EUR 1 billion to be generated in Q4, that operating cash flow, right? That’s from my side.

Bjorn Gulden: Yes. I think I quoted that because normally, when you have higher end price points, the market for the takedowns is bigger, I have to tell that the sell-through of the higher end, meaning the originals, has been so high. So still, the higher end is actually bigger than the takedowns. Having said that, if you look at the family channel, of course, they have followed all these trends. So you will find takedowns of all the [ Terrex ] shoes in the market. But it is true that in this case, and it might have to do that, you know, the original classics and [ Terrex ] are, you know, between EUR 100 and EUR 120. So it’s not expensive, expensive, that the higher end of the market has actually been bigger than the takedowns.

That might change as we are converting more of the takedowns also into the same materials as we do upstairs. But to be honest with you, because we’ve been so successful upstairs, we haven’t pushed the takedowns as much as I thought that we had to. So this is more of a, what should I say, coincidence in the sense that it has worked so well in the distribution upstairs, also in our D2C, that the need for doing takedowns hasn’t been there. So I think this is a very unique situation, to be honest.

Harm Ohlmeyer: Yes. And to the second question, we indeed talked about operating cash flow, you’re right.

Sebastian Steffen: Maura, we have time for 2 more questions.

Operator: Next question comes from Anne-Laure Bismuth from HSBC .

Anne-Laure Jamain: Yes. My first question is regarding the FX. So can you tell us or help us to quantify what would be the tailwind from FX on margin in 2026? My second question is related to tariff. Actually, regarding the tariffs in Vietnam, a final trade agreement is expected soon. So is there any industry expectation on Vietnam tariff changes for the sportswear industry? And maybe your last one regarding the performance in the U.S. So you talk about the reset in accessories. So is it a one-off impact? So does that mean that all things being equal, you can return to a double-digit growth rate in Q4 — thank you very much — in the U.S.?

Bjorn Gulden: Well, the tariff for the U.S. hasn’t changed. They came out and said they keep it at 20% and then negotiate in categories that might be exempt. But there’s nothing new on that. So all products currently is at 20%. And we are not assuming any reduction because that would be dangerous. But, of course, we hope with Vietnam and other markets that shoes and apparel would be exempt. But that’s not the case. And I think that came out actually yesterday for many markets, if I’m right. And then when it gets to the US, the accessory business that is not performance-oriented has been, I would say, first of all, a lot China sourcing. So, of course, that had to change. And secondly, it’s been in the distribution that you’re trying to upgrade.

So, It’s not a one-off in the sense that there is something you do from today to tomorrow, but I think there’s good, good chances that that will come up again to double-digit increases. There’s nothing drama in this, to be honest, and maybe we didn’t explain it well, but it did hit us in Q3 for those reasons, and then there are plans actually to improve that very quickly. There is also no inventory sitting anywhere to clean up. I think people under or overestimated the impact of this. So I think accessories being global is 7% of our business, and we have said all the time that it should grow quicker over time. It’s kind of the last thing in the sequence of footwear apparel that accessories come. And we grew it 1% now, and I do think that in the future when we get to ’26, we should see double-digit growth there.

I think that’s my only answer to it. And don’t read too much into this because it is not a big, big thing, to be honest. Harm?

Harm Ohlmeyer: Yes, When it comes to the FX for ’26, I understand you all want to have a concrete percentage or number for your spreadsheets, but I can just promise you there will be tailwind, given where we’re hedged. But there’s more than just the U.S. dollar. There are other currencies as well, whether it’s the Japanese yen. I talked about Argentinian peso, Mexican peso, the other currencies as well. We have sizable markets, meanwhile, not just in Latin America, but around the world. But also, assume it will be tailwind when it comes to Euro, U.S. dollar. We also are fully hedged already for spring-summer ’26, but there are also some open hedges. We normally hedge only 80% of our exposure, so it also depends on where the spot rate is, and we always run a simulated hedge rate if you would close it today, but of course we are waiting.

It will be more tailwind if the dollar goes to $1.25, then we probably struggle on the translation again. But overall, we are going very positively from an FX point of view into ’26. That’s all I can say.

Operator: Today’s last question comes from the line of Anna Andreeva from Piper Sandler.

Anna Andreeva: Happy to have made it. A follow up on North America. Great to hear about the double digit strength in footwear and apparel during the quarter. Can you talk about how lifestyle is performing versus performance in the U.S.? Is Terrace still growing in the U.S.? And what are you seeing with sell-through in Run Specialty and other wholesale partners? And then separately on gross margin, improved very nicely sequentially in the region, despite the tariffs. Maybe talk about what drove that and sustainability of that as we get into the fourth quarter.

Bjorn Gulden: I think it’s fair to say that the growth in the U.S. has been more lifestyle-driven than performance. I do think it’s fair to say that for us to be a real sports plan in the U.S. we need to continue to invest, to get better distribution of a market share in the sports trade is very low. And you’re asking about the Running Specialty. We were almost out of it. So we expect actually over the next 18 months to see a pretty high growth when it gets to Running Specialty because you’re coming from a low base. And we are a hundred percent sure that the investments that we’re currently doing in American sports, connecting to both college and professional sport will help us to get much better distribution with the [indiscernible] of this world and the academies and also in the specialties. So I think it’s fair to say that it’s obviously been lifestyle-driven so far.

Anna Andreeva: Terrific. And on gross margin as a follow-up.

Bjorn Gulden: Yes. As I said, I do think that the gross margin in the U.S. is, of course, dependent on that you get good distribution and that you avoid discounting. I do think also that the margin in general in the U.S. has to do with scale. There is an upside on margin in the U.S., no doubt about it. You have seen improvement, and that has, of course, to do that we have had better sell-through, and we got more of the right product into the wholesale business and we have run especially our factory outlet much better than we used to do, but that has clear an upside. So we see optimistic. Okay. If you take the tariffs out, which, of course, is then the negative side of it. But everything being equal, we should be able to build gross margin and actually our operating margin in the U.S. over time because we have not run that market optimal, to be honest with you.

Sebastian Steffen: Thanks very much, Anna. Thanks very much, Maura. And of course, thanks very much to Bjorn and Harm. And thanks very much to all of you for participating in our call today. . Before concluding today’s call, I would like to highlight that we will be welcoming a group of investors here at the World of Sports next week. We talked quite a bit about our excitement about our product pipeline, be it Hyperboost, be it our new Original sports line, be it the Superstar, but also the material updates within tariff. So if you’re interested in experiencing that, then please let us know, and we’ll be happy to host you next week as well. If you have any more questions to ask, then please feel free to reach out to Adrian, Philip, myself or any other member of the IR team. And with that, thanks very much again for your participation. We wish you a good and golden autumn season and look forward to chatting with you soon. Bye-bye.