Adidas Q3 2026 results: record €1.01 billion profit, but a tariff refund did a fifth of the work

Adidas reported record third-quarter 2026 revenue of €7,252 million and record operating profit of €1,008 million on October 29, 2026, and raised its full-year operating profit outlook to around €2.5 billion from around €2.3 billion. The records are real by the company's own accounts. So is a caveat: adidas booked a US tariff refund of around €200 million in the quarter, which is about a fifth of that operating profit.

What adidas reported

Revenue grew 9 percent to €7,252 million from €6,630 million a year earlier, and 7 percent on a currency-neutral basis. Operating profit climbed 37 percent to €1,008 million from €736 million, a margin of 13.9 percent against 11.1 percent. Net income from continuing operations rose 48 percent to €711 million, and earnings per share from continuing operations were €4.06 against €2.57.

For the first nine months of 2026, revenue reached €20,587 million, up 11 percent currency-neutral, and operating profit rose 21 percent to €2.3 billion at an 11.1 percent margin. Adidas also completed a €1 billion share buyback and cancelled 6 million shares.

Apparel led, footwear stalled

The split by product explains the quarter. Apparel revenue rose 19 percent currency-neutral, driven by Originals and football. Footwear was flat, because adidas says it is holding back wholesale shipments to protect full-price sales in what it describes as a promotional marketplace. In its own direct channels, footwear grew 6 percent. Accessories grew 5 percent.

The company described performance revenues as up 14 percent, with double-digit growth in running, training and football. Lifestyle grew just 3 percent. Within lifestyle, adidas named Firebird and adicolor apparel, new collaborations with Jennie, Arte Antwerp and Simone Rocha, and the Samba and Handball Spezial as continuing to sell. It said Superstar and low-profile styles continued to grow strongly.

Performance had its own highlights. Adidas athletes took all six podium spots at the Berlin Marathon in the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, and the company said the all-adidas final at the FIFA World Cup 2026 carried momentum into club kit and fan merchandise launches for Arsenal, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Manchester United. In the United States it also began selling first collections for new college partners Tennessee and Penn State. Those are the company's own examples of what drove the 14 percent performance gain.

Direct sales and the map

Direct-to-consumer revenue grew 17 percent currency-neutral, with e-commerce up 18 percent and company-owned retail up 16 percent. Wholesale grew only 2 percent. That gap is deliberate. Adidas says it kept wholesale sell-in conservative because of high inventory and discounting among retailers, especially in Europe.

Geography follows the same pattern, at currency-neutral rates:

• Greater China: up 13 percent.
• North America: up 12 percent.
• Latin America: up 16 percent.
• Japan and South Korea: up 19 percent.
• Emerging markets: up 15 percent, despite disruption in several Middle Eastern countries.
• Europe: down 4 percent, even though adidas says its own channels there grew at a high single-digit rate.

Adidas also said an SAP system migration in parts of Europe temporarily affected wholesale deliveries at the end of the quarter, pushing shipments and revenue into the fourth quarter, and it expects high single-digit growth in Europe in Q4.

The tariff refund inside the margin

Gross margin rose 2.5 percentage points to 54.3 percent from 51.8 percent. Adidas credits healthy full-price sales and a favorable channel mix, and says it "received the majority of its US tariff claims" in the quarter, recording a refund of around €200 million that contributed to the improvement. Unfavorable currency movements and higher US tariffs pulled the other way.

Do the division. A €200 million refund against €1,008 million of operating profit is about 20 percent, by our arithmetic. Adidas also recorded around €10 million of interest income related to US tariffs in its financial result. The operating profit record, then, is partly the product of a one-time recovery of duties paid earlier, not just of selling more shoes at better prices. FashionUnited reported that management plans to reinvest roughly €100 million into operational leverage initiatives in the fourth quarter, which is why the guidance is around €2.5 billion rather than higher.

Marketing and point-of-sale spending rose 4 percent to €833 million but fell to 11.5 percent of sales from 12.0 percent, as the post-World Cup spending normalizes. Operating overhead rose 9 percent to €2,118 million, which adidas attributes to higher e-commerce shipping volumes and strong direct growth. Inventory was €5.7 billion.

A second cross-check is size. On our arithmetic, €200 million is about 2.8 percent of the quarter's €7,252 million of revenue, so it explains much of why the gross margin gain looks so large.

The 2026 outlook

Adidas now expects currency-neutral revenue to grow between 9 and 10 percent in 2026 and operating profit of around €2.5 billion, versus the previous around €2.3 billion. CEO Bjørn Gulden said the company is comfortable it will deliver full-year sales growth of almost €2.5 billion and improve operating profit to around €2.5 billion.

His remarks on footwear lifestyle are the most candid line in the release. He calls it "currently challenging" because of too much inventory and discounting across the market, and says it will normalize. That is a forecast, not a result, and it applies to the category that built adidas's recent comeback.

Our take

This was a strong quarter: double-digit growth in almost every market, direct sales up 17 percent, and apparel doing the heavy lifting while shoe wholesale is held back deliberately. It was also flattered by a refund that will not repeat. Anyone comparing adidas with a rival should look at the tariff line before the profit line, as with the refunds also booked by Levi Strauss in its third quarter. We would watch Europe in the fourth quarter, the shipment timing from the system migration and whether the lifestyle shoe cycle cools as management expects.