Adidas Posts the Biggest Quarter in Its History

Adidas has just had the best three months in its history. Preliminary third-quarter figures released this morning show revenue of €7.25 billion, up 9% on the same period last year. Operating profit rose 37% to just over €1 billion, the highest quarterly figure the company has ever posted.

On the back of those numbers, adidas raised its full-year operating profit forecast to around €2.5 billion, up from the roughly €2.3 billion it had projected before.

CEO Bjørn Gulden mentioned running directly. He credited the company’s spending on innovation with delivering “great wins, stories and performances,” along with “strong and profitable growth in Football, Running and Training.” The preliminary release doesn’t say how much running grew on its own. That breakdown should come with the full results on October 29.

The wins aren’t hard to find. At the London Marathon in April, Sabastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha both ran under two hours in the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, and Sawe set the world record. Adidas shares rose after the race, and the shoe went on sale worldwide soon after.

Not all of the jump came from selling more product, though. During the quarter, adidas got back most of the money it had claimed on US tariffs. That refund, around €200 million, went straight into the gross margin, which rose 2.5 percentage points to 54.3%. Without it, operating profit would have been about €800 million. That’s still well ahead of the €736 million adidas made in the third quarter of 2025, but the gain is much smaller than the headline 37%. The company said strong full-price sales also helped the margin, while currency movements pulled it down.

Gulden also admitted where things are harder. “The footwear lifestyle business is currently challenging, mainly due to too much inventory and too much discounting in the marketplace,” he said. He added that he expects it to “soon normalize,” and that adidas is “not trying to maximize the short-term.”

That thinking shows up in the forecast. Higher profit on its growth and the tariff refund would have taken adidas to €2.6 billion for the year. Instead, it plans to put around €100 million back into the business in the fourth quarter on what it calls “initiatives enabling greater operating leverage in the future.” That’s why the new target is €2.5 billion.

Adidas will publish its full third-quarter results on October 29.