Shares in Adidas fell as much as 10.5 per cent on Wednesday, after the sportswear giant warned it could hike the total price of its product catalogue in the US as much as €200 million overall this year.
US tariffs have already caused a “double-digit euro-million hit” to the business in the second quarter, CEO Bjørn Gulden told investors on Wednesday’s earnings call, adding that management will conduct a full pricing review once the US confirms its final rate of tariffs on global imports at the beginning of August. Adidas is more likely to increase prices of new products than existing SKUs initially, Gulden added.
“The worst-case scenario is that we have another €200 million increase in costs on goods sold going forward, which we will of course mitigate, and you can expect us to start to tell you what the costs are and how we will mitigate them in the third quarter,” Gulden said. “But what we are most worried about, is what the consumer reaction in the US will be — not just to what our company does, but across the entire market.”
Adidas will not be the first to hike prices, Gulden told investors, but will wait to see “what competitors are doing and what the consumer is accepting”.
“The key thing for us is that we want to be profitable in the mid-term in the US,” he said, stressing that the US market is still a key focus for the brand.
US tariffs on Vietnam, where Adidas produces 30 per cent of the products it exports to the US, have increased by 20 percentage points since the administration announced a revised tariffs policy in April. US tariffs on Indonesia, where Adidas gets 23 per cent of its US supply, have increased by 19 per cent.
China has been the worst hit, undergoing a 30 per cent tariff this year, but Gulden said US-China tariffs are now “almost irrelevant” for Adidas, after the company mitigated its risks by reducing Chinese imports to the US to almost 2 per cent.
“We’ve seen many other brands cancelling orders, but we have not cancelled one order so far,” Gulden said, warning “that might change depending on what happens in a few days”.
Adidas reported revenue growth of 2.2 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter to €5.95 billion, despite negative currency impacts denting revenues by €300 million. Operating profits jumped 57.7 per cent to €546 million in the second quarter, ahead of analysts’ forecast of €518 million. These second-quarter results do not include any Yeezy contribution, after Adidas completed the sale of the remaining Yeezy inventory at the end of 2024.
Adidas said it still expects to post an operating profit of between €1.7 billion and €1.8 billion for the full year, excluding any potential earnings or profits generated from Yeezy.
“Amid the tariffs uncertainty, many companies have removed [their] outlooks completely,” Gulden said. “But we’ve decided to be prudent. If we didn’t have these duties, our guidance would be at least €200 million higher — so if the duties are lowered, there could be a significant upside to this approach.”
Gulden said Adidas remained confident for the rest of the year and underlined the brand’s strong order book for Q3 and Q4, despite tariff uncertainties.
“Demand is strengthening across all markets, we feel we have a great pipeline of products and great marketing and momentum, and the timing now in the run-up to the World Cup in the US is very important to us,” he added.
Revenues grew across all product categories and regions, with the brand’s apparel sales leading the way with a 17 per cent increase on the same period last year.
Footwear revenues for the Adidas brand increased 9 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter, and the company said several categories — including running, training, sportswear and performance basketball — posted double-digit footwear growth.
Latin America experienced the highest revenue growth in Q2, jumping 22 per cent on the same period a year prior, with Japan and South Korea coming in second and posting 13 per cent growth for the quarter. North America posted 8 per cent growth, and Europe missed analyst expectations at 4 per cent growth, which Gulden said was due to particularly hot weather in the region throughout June.
Adidas relaunched its Superstar shoe earlier this month, which Gulden told investors is “the most-sold Adidas shoe ever”, highlighting the potential of the global marketing campaign for the style, which is already being rolled out.
Gulden called out the still-strong performance of the brand’s hit shoes such as its Sambas, Gazelles and Spezials. The brand’s “low-profile” lifestyle sneakers (a buzzy fashion crowd staple) are still a focus area for growth, with Gulden saying he is confident that sales of the shoe would be “stronger into 2026”.
Adidas also expects the lifestyle football category to grow “exponentially” this year, Gulden said. He cited the brand’s hyperlocal focus as a key asset when it came to regional marketing campaigns driving growth in key markets, including the brand’s just-launched Oasis merchandise deal.
“We are very very proud of what the UK team has achieved with the Oasis activation, a local initiative that has seen global appeal,” the executive said. “We feel like we’re moving in the right direction in all regions. We feel we now have strong local leadership and the right local teams, which will be very important, and may even be a competitive advantage, as we go forward.”
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