Adidas is continuing to invest in “impactful marketing initiatives” as it powers ahead with its brand revival.
The German sportswear giant posted double-digit second quarter growth of 12%, with the Adidas brand overall growing 14% in the first half of 2025.
First half revenue reached €12.1bn (£10.5bn), up 6% in Euro terms and 11% currency neutral. Q2 revenue was €6.4bn (£5.5bn), up 5% in Euros and 10% currency neutral.
“We have been able to create brand heat,” said CEO Bjørn Gulden.
Adidas is continuing to invest in “impactful marketing initiatives” as it powers ahead with its brand revival.
The German sportswear giant posted double-digit second quarter growth of 12%, with the Adidas brand overall growing 14% in the first half of 2025.
First half revenue reached €12.1bn (£10.5bn), up 6% in Euro terms and 11% currency neutral. Q2 revenue was €6.4bn (£5.5bn), up 5% in Euros and 10% currency neutral.
“We have been able to create brand heat,” said CEO Bjørn Gulden.
The brand has focused on expanding on current products, like its successful retro trainers, while extending “brand momentum” in its apparel category, which grew 17% in Q2.
“I want to recognise that our marketing teams, both locally and globally, have done a great job building back the heat in the brand. And that’s, of course, what we are capitalising on globally,” added Gulden.
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Marketing and point-of-sale expenses rose 7% year-on-year in the six months to 30 June, reaching €1.5bn (£1.7bn). As a percentage of sales, marketing spend was flat at 12% compared with 12.1% a year ago. For Q2, marketing spend was 11.1% of sales, slightly lower than the half-year average.
For the quarter, marketing investment rose just 1% year-on-year to €712m (£615m), as Adidas continues to support its ‘You Got This’ brand platform launched last year and ‘The Original’, a campaign focused on bringing younger customers into its “iconic” product lines.
Gulden praised the brand’s 2025 UEFA Women’s Euros campaign – part of You Got This – on a call with investors call today (30 July).
“Stadiums were full, great television ratings and even commercially although at a different league than the Men’s Euros, we actually sold in and out of the trade many times what we have done before,” said Gulden, calling it “another great step for women’s football”.
A stronger brand
Adidas’s Q2 operating profit rose 58% to €546m (£472m), while its operating margin improved by 3.2 percentage points to 9.2%. Meanwhile, for the half-year, its operating profit is up 70% to €1.2bn (£1bn).
“I feel that we are a much better retailer now than we were a year ago,” said Gulden.
While admitting there’s still “a lot to improve” and the brand is “far away from having optimised” its business model, Gulden said he is “convinced that being a global brand with a local mindset is the right strategy to be globally successful”.
“Our vision is to hire, develop and retain the best people to run our business in the different markets, to be close to the consumer and the local culture, have the right products and the relevant marketing for each market,” he added.
Adidas wants to be the leader in “all markets” worldwide, apart from North America, where the “ambition” is to double its business before taking over from competitor Nike.
Revenue in North America for Q2 grew 15%, with growth also reported in China (11%), Latin America (23%), and Japan and South Korea (15%).
In Europe, revenue was up 7% on last year’s number, “despite the non-recurrence of the strong commercial success related to last year’s [men’s] UEFA Euro”. In Q2 last year, the tournament contributed revenues of around €100m (£87m).
Despite the strong numbers and positive start to the year, Adidas won’t be raising its financial outlook for 2025 overall.
“The year has started great for us and normally we would now be very bullish in our outlook for the full year,” said Gulden.
“We feel the volatility and uncertainty in the world does not make this prudent,” he explained, citing a “negative impact” in the double-digit millions in Q2 due to US tariff uncertainty, alongside an expected €200m (£173m) impact on costs for the rest of the year.
In response to financial headwinds, Adidas’s price points “in general will not change,” said Gulden. Instead, “there are new products where you can raise prices”, he explained, cautioning the importance of covering each category “with the right price points”.
“It is very, very important that you don’t run away from the lower price points and believe you can just raise prices and do less volume,” he added.
