During March and April earnings season, Anta Group’s 13.6 percent revenue growth to $9.77 billion (over $14.6 billion including Amer Sports) for the 2024 fiscal year positioned it as the third “100 billion yuan club” member in sportswear. This milestone stands out in China‘s sluggish consumption environment marked by weak domestic and overseas demand.
Anta’s profit for the year was $2.34 billion, surging by 50.7 percent year-over-year. On a consolidated basis, the profit attributable to shareholders increased by 7.1 percent year-over-year to $1.62 billion; the profit attributable to shareholders grew by 52.4 percent year-over-year to $2.15 billion. The basic earnings per share were 5.55 yuan, rising by 50.4 percent year-over-year. Despite such remarkable shareholder returns, on the day the earnings report was disclosed, Anta’s share price dove in the afternoon, with the steepest fall approaching 7 percent.
The decline was attributed to two factors: a slight drop in the group’s overall gross profit margin and operating profit margin on the one hand, and a slowdown again at Fila, which was once the group’s growth engine and cash cow. According to the group’s financial report, the gross profit margins of Anta, Fila, and other brands declined by 0.4 percent, 1.2 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively. Fila, which contributed nearly half of the group’s profits over the past decade and had a gross profit margin as high as 70 percent, suffered the largest decline last year.
Ding Shizhong, chairman of Anta and Amer Sports, stated “Fila is in the most crucial transformation period.” He believed that “it’s fine as long as Fila’s revenue exceeds $4.14 billion and achieves reasonable growth.”
Anta has created a matrix of sports brands with a total value of more than 100 billion yuan through strategic acquisitions and the cooperation of eight high-end brands such as Arc’teryx and Descente under its umbrella. According to Ding, the most important standard in the evaluation of a brand is whether its market share increases every year.
It is true that the sports footwear and apparel market has sufficient room for future growth. In the Chinese market, during the Two Sessions in 2025, the National Health Commission proposed to continuously promote the “Year for Weight Management” plan. With the explosion in market scale to trillions of yuan, the sportswear industry is bound to welcome a “golden season.”
One day earlier than Anta Group, Xtep International revealed its full-year performance for 2024. The financial report showed that the revenue of Xtep’s continuing operations increased by 6.5 percent to $1.87 billion. The revenue of the umbrella brand increased by 3.2 percent to $1.7 billion. The revenue of the professional sports segment increased by 57.2 percent year-over-year to $172.4 million. The profit attributable to holders of common equity reached a historical high of $170 million, an increase of 20.2 percent.
Xtep, which achieved record profits, has entered the final year of its “five-year-plan” this year. As early as 2021, when Xtep first broke through the 10 billion yuan revenue mark, chairman Ding Shuibo ambitiously set a five-year goal — to achieve revenue of $2.76 billion for the umbrella brand with a compound annual growth rate of 23 percent, and a combined revenue of $550 million for new brands with a compound annual growth rate of more than 30 percent. However, last year’s results show there is still a gap of nearly one-third from this goal, which has heightened the expectations for 2025.
At this moment, Xtep, which sold its sports brands K-Swiss and Palladium last year to focus on the core running sector, has seen its brand Saucony achieve revenue exceeding $138 million for the first time, and it is expected to become the second growth curve of the group. Moreover, China, with nearly 300 million runners, has become the world’s second-largest market for running apparel. With the expanding market scale and the strategy of “Professionals Influence the Masses,” the wearing rate of Xtep running shoes in major marathon events has topped the list. In the 2024 Xiamen Marathon, among the 30,000 participants in the full marathon, more than 12,000 runners wore Xtep running shoes. Such a dominating data performance enables Xtep, the main force in the first echelon, and Saucony in the second echelon to jointly achieve dual-engine growth albeit at different stages.
In the most recent Xiamen Marathon event, among the 30,000 participants in the full marathon, more than 12,000 runners participated in the race wearing Xtep running shoes.
It is reported that Anta invested $276 million in research and development in 2024, with an average daily research and development expense of $690,000. On the other hand, Xtep is preparing to increase its investment in the direct-to-consumer strategy of its main brand, and aims to improve the brand image and operational efficiency through better retail management. Anta and Xtep are both aiming to upgrade stores to improve the shopping experience and further increase their brands’ value.
Lilanz China, a menswear brand, is also planning channel transformation and to increase the proportion of the DTC model. According to its 2024 financial report, its revenue was $503 million, a year-over-year increase of 3 percent, and net profit was $63.6 million, a year-over-year decrease of 13.1 percent. Except for growth of 18.3 percent in 2023, the company’s results had declined in the period from 2020 to 2022. In fact, in the previous year, Lilanz China had already implemented a DTC model for the principal Lilanz series in the northeast region and Jiangsu Province. However, this measure led to a decline in wholesale sales, impacting overall revenue.
In general, China’s menswear industry is undergoing a painful period of integration and transformation. In the first three quarters of 2024, the revenue of Septwolves decreased by 7.7 percent, and net profit after deducting non-recurring items dropped by as much as 82.7 percent, with operating cash flow deteriorating rapidly. For Joeone, which provided the ceremonial attire for Chinese athletes at the Paris Olympics, net profit after deducting nonrecurring items fell by 29.2 percent in the first three quarters of 2024, excluding investment income.
Lilanz has been vigorously laying out its youth business brand Less Is More and actively promoting its transformation toward a younger demographic.
Not only channel transformation but also brand reinvention and new generations are sparking the changes in consumption. Taking Lilanz as an example — its affiliated joint venture company obtained the rights to the high-end golfwear brand Munsingwear in China in August 2024; however, there is still no news about the opening of the first store. Meanwhile, Lilanz’s youth business brand Less Is More is aimed at a younger demographic.
Womenswear, on the other hand, presents a “dumbbell-shaped” market. All six major listed players reported 2024 declines: Peacebird revenue fell 12.3 percent, Jinhong Fashion (the Teenie Weenie owner) dropped 3.3 percent, while EEKA Fashion anticipates about a 45 percent profit decrease. Despite digitalization efforts and “dopamine dressing” trends, high return rates and style transition costs plague the sector.
The Multibrand Matrix of EEKA Fashion.
Although the increasingly high return rate for women’s clothing had previously overwhelmed the industry to some extent, digitalization remains a battlefield of competition. Moreover, marketing focused on “emotional appeal” has sparked online fashion trends such as dopamine dressing and endorphin-inspired fashion, which can also drive sales across all channels to a certain degree.
When the growth dividend fades away, Chinese fashion enterprises are shifting from a “scale competition” to “in-depth value exploration.” Whether the investment in technology, the upgrading of stores, or targeting specific consumer groups, all these efforts are aimed at redefining the relationship between “people, products and the marketplace” based on the latest trends. In the second half of 2025, those who possess the dual capabilities of “intense vertical specialization” and “agile innovation” are likely to win against the competition.
Editor’s note: China Insight is a monthly feature from WWD’s sister publication WWD China looking at trends in that all-important market.