Tag: amer sports

  • Salomon Expands Womens Footwear Push Following Jisoo Seoul Campaign

    Salomon Expands Womens Footwear Push Following Jisoo Seoul Campaign

    Salomon released a collaborative sneaker capsule with FP Movement on Monday priced up to $185. The launch accelerates its push to win female consumers across global and Asian markets.

    Direct-to-consumer sales to women rose 10 percentage points over the past two years. They now account for roughly 45 percent of direct revenue, according to Amer Sports disclosures.

    The capsule reworks Salomon’s XT-6 and XT-Whisper silhouettes in gradient colorways. The XT-6 incorporates pink, mint, and ivory tones with green accents. Meanwhile, the XT-Whisper blends coral, blush, and peach alongside purple and blue details across its SensiFit structure. Pricing runs between $145 and $185 across select Salomon and FP Movement retail stores and e-commerce channels.

    Building Out Womens Technical Footwear

    Amer Sports has made expanding Salomon’s female audience a core pillar of its revenue strategy. Management outlined the plan during an investor day presentation in September. Targeted product design, specific color palettes, and focused design collaborations are expanding the French label’s footprint beyond its traditional core of male trail runners.

    Kristof Cavazzana, vice president of product and experience at Salomon, pointed to multi-season design partnerships like previous work with Sandy Liang as crucial drivers for broadening market reach. The brand uses these capsules to bridge mountain sports heritage with everyday lifestyle demand in major metropolitan centers.

    For retailers and multi-brand distributors throughout the Asia-Pacific region, the shift recalibrates shelf space allocation. Salomon has transitioned from a niche technical outdoor label into a mainstream lifestyle competitor. It now challenges established athletic giants for premium display space in top shopping malls across Seoul, Tokyo, and Shanghai.

    Asian Demand and Cultural Alignment

    Operational risk sits in maintaining technical credibility while chasing fast-moving fashion trends. Functional outdoor brands that lean heavily into trend-driven colorways risk alienating core athletes and face rapid product life cycles. Salomon hedges this risk by keeping its proprietary sole units, chassis systems, and weather-resistant membranes fully intact across all lifestyle releases.

    Competition in technical outdoor footwear has intensified across Asian gateway cities. Competing labels are fighting for the same urban consumers who combine weekend trail activities with commuter sportswear. Salomon’s conversion rates depend on maintaining authentic performance specifications while delivering softer aesthetic executions.

    Campaign Precedents in Seoul

    The FP Movement capsule follows Salomon’s major visual campaign titled In The Open, which debuted in late September starring Blackpink member Jisoo. Shot across parks, trails, and urban streets in Seoul under creative director Heikki Salonen, the campaign presented the Fall/Winter 2026 footwear range against South Korean landscapes.

    Jisoo formalized her global ambassadorship in May, making this visual rollout her first major project with the label. The campaign showed technical footwear built for mixed environments, including the XT-6 Protective, the XT-Whisper Gore-Tex, and the XT-4 OG Gore-Tex.

    Valerie Loh, senior vice president of brand and marketing at Salomon, noted that female participation in direct sales channels climbed from 35 percent to roughly 45 percent during the two-year repositioning period.

    Next Steps on the Product Calendar

    The wider Fall/Winter 2026 collection featured in the Seoul campaign goes on sale globally on October 7 through Salomon’s direct website and wholesale network. Amer Sports management will track whether conversion rates among female shoppers keep rising as these seasonal styles reach physical stores across Asia and North America.

  • Anta Sports Lifts First-Half Revenue 12.9% to $6.1 Billion

    Anta Sports Lifts First-Half Revenue 12.9% to $6.1 Billion

    Anta Sports lifted first-half revenue 12.9 per cent to RMB43.51 billion ($6.1 billion) for fiscal 2026. Strong demand across the company’s outdoor portfolio drove the top-line gain.

    Revenue at the core Anta brand rose 4.8 per cent year on year to RMB17.77 billion ($2.64 billion). Sportswear line Fila added RMB15.05 billion ($2.24 billion), a 6.1 per cent increase over the six-month period.

    Outdoor labels outpace core brands

    Specialty outdoor and niche sports apparel carried the bulk of the group’s sales growth. The division covering Descente, Kolon Sport, Jack Wolfskin and female activewear label Maia Active surged 44.2 per cent to RMB10.69 billion ($1.59 billion).

    Spending on product development increased alongside the broader business. Anta allocated approximately RMB1.11 billion ($164.95 million) to research and development during the half.

    Chairman Ding Shizhong said the company will keep investing in product innovation, brand equity and regional retail upgrades. It also plans to build global management capabilities.

    Leadership reset at the flagship unit

    The financial update follows an executive change at the group’s main commercial division. Anta brand chief executive Xu Yang stepped down in July, citing personal family reasons. Directors placed co-chief executive Lai Shixian in charge of the flagship label on an interim basis.

    Market trends show a broader split in Chinese sportswear retail. Mainstream sneaker and apparel sales face stiffer price competition and saturated footprints. Meanwhile, premium outdoor lines continue to capture higher consumer spending in tier-one and tier-two cities.

    Beyond its directly run portfolio, Anta remains the controlling shareholder in Amer Sports, owner of Arc’teryx, Salomon, Wilson and Atomic. Focus now turns to how quickly interim chief Lai Shixian adjusts retail distribution for the core Anta brand ahead of the winter selling season.

  • Finland’s Amer Sports gets US$5.3 billion bid interest from China’s Anta

    Finland’s Amer Sports gets US$5.3 billion bid interest from China’s Anta

    China’s Anta Sports has lodged a US$5.3 billion bid for Amer Sports, which owns Salomon, Wilson, Arc’teryx, Suunto, Peak Performance and Precor, among other brands.

    Anta Sports has teamed with Hong Kong-headquartered private-equity group FountainVest partners in the bid, offering a 40 per cent premium over the target company’s share price before the bid was disclosed.

    Amer Sports appeared somewhat taken aback by the bid, issuing a statement saying it was “not engaged in any negotiations with the consortium and has made no decisions in respect of the Indication of Interest”. The company noted the bid was conditional on 90 per cent shareholder approval, board approval, financing and other conditions.

    “Amer Sports will release further information at an appropriate time if an agreement is reached with the consortium in respect of a transaction or any negotiations are terminated or abandoned.”

    Anta Sports, listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, was founded in 1991 as a manufacturing supplier to the footwear industry. Since then it has grown to become China’s largest domestic sportswear brand and industry analysts estimate it is the world’s third largest by market capitalisation after Nike and Adidas. Besides its own Anta-branded goods, it owns the rights to Fila in greater China and in 2016 formed a joint venture with Descente Japan and Itochu, which has resulted in the opening of 85 Descente stores in China and early last year another joint venture with South Korea’s Kolon Sport led to a network of 189 stores. Childrenswear business Kingkow followed last September, which now numbers 63 stores in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and the US.

    Sales last year grew 25.1 per cent to RMB16.69 billion (US$2.43 billion), following increases on 20 per cent in 2016 and 25 per cent in 2015. In the six months to June 30, year-on-year sales soared 44 per cent and profit by 34 per cent.

    As of June, the company had 9650 retail stores in Mainland China.

    In February, chairman and CEO Ding Shizhong said the company was actively seeking to buy “high-end international sportswear brands” with strong growth potential.

    Amer Sports opportunity

    Amer Sports posted sales last year of €2.69 billion ($3.12 billion) with 43 per cent of its revenue coming from Europe, Middle East and Africa and just 14 per cent from Asia. Sales in China have expanded from 1 per cent of total turnover in 2010 to 6 per cent this year and the company is eyeing 10 per cent within several years.

    The company has recently been targeting growth in Mainland China and Anta Sports’ obvious market knowledge and footprint in the country would significantly boost those opportunities.

    Amer’s fastest-growing division is softgoods, headed by the Salomon and Arc’Teryx brands.