On and Asics Post Record Earnings, but Under Armour Falters Once Again
The Swiss sportswear giant passed $1 billion in quarterly sales for the first time, while Asics' sportstyle footwear business continues to boom in North America and beyond.
Hi everyone, welcome back to SportsVerse, my twice-weekly newsletter that tells stories you can’t find anywhere else about the intersection of sports, fashion, business, and culture.
In today’s relatively short newsletter, I wanted to check in after several of the category’s brands reported earnings in recent days. As I mentioned earlier this week, May and June were always going to be insightful months into the health of the sportswear industry, given On, Asics, Under Armour and Nike were all due to report earnings. With the Swoosh still to come in June, let’s take a look at how earnings revealed the varying fortunes of the first three names on that list. I have two juicy sportswear market-related articles planned for next week, but for now, let’s dig in:
On announced that it generated $1 billion in revenue in the first three months of 2026, up 14.5 percent from the same period last year. It was the first time the Swiss sneaker giant crossed the $1 billion threshold in quarterly sales. Profit rose 82.2 percent year-over-year to CHF 103.3 million ($127 million). Similar to the theme of Tuesday’s newsletter (which focused on the LinkedIn warriors and the armchair experts piling onto Nike), On also received widespread and largely unfounded criticism from casual commentators, investors and financial analysts alike in April, when it announced that longtime CEO Martin Hoffmann was stepping aside, to be replaced by two of the brand’s co-founders (David Allemann and Caspar Coppetti) splitting the role. People began to jump to the conclusion that this was “the beginning of the end of On’s rise”. This set of earnings, which we’ll dig into in detail on Tuesday, accompanied by an interview with one of the brand’s execs, prove that rumours of On’s demise were greatly exaggerated and/or completely unfounded. Apparel is becoming an increasingly important aspect of On’s business as the company transitions from a footwear specialist to an all-around sportswear power player.
Meanwhile, On’s Japanese sportswear rival, Asics, continued its meteoric rise, boosted by the popularity of its performance running and sportstyle (fashion) footwear along with its Onitsuka Tiger label, posting record quarterly sales of its own this week. Asics has been on a steadily building hot streak for several quarters now, but revenues of $1.83 billion, up 30 percent compared to the same period in 2025, and profits up 47 percent year-over-year, suggest the company is in all-out offense mode, snagging vital market share far beyond Asia in key markets such as North America and Europe. Buoyed by the strongest quarter in the company’s 77-year history, Asics raised its guidance for fiscal 2026.
Finally, the embattled Under Armour reported earnings its full-year fiscal 2026, ended March 31. As expected, it wasn’t pretty. Revenue of $5 billion constituted a four percent decrease from 2025’s figure, with an especially sharp drop-off in North America sales of 8 percent. The Baltimore-based sportswear brand, which is in the midst of yet another restructuring attempt by controversial founder and once-again CEO Kevin Plank, also reported a loss of $496 million and an operating loss of $163 million. The bleak earnings bring an end to a miserable fiscal year for Under Armour, which will forever be remembered for the brand’s shock decision to discard its basketball-focused Curry Brand, along with its co-founder and NBA legend Steph Curry, who at the time was under a lifetime endorsement deal with the company. For the upcoming fiscal year, Under Armour said it expects another low single-digit decrease in annual revenue. Time will tell if Plank can pull the brand out of dire straits. Recent history suggests it will be easier said than done.
That’s all for today, friends. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
See you next time,
DYM