2025–2026 | Navigating the Headwinds Aboard the One-Trillion-Yuan Anta Ship

For a corporation of Anta’s size—now a one-trillion-yuan heavyweight—there is no slowing down. The tides of 2025 saw the group sailing through both smooth waters and turbulent waves. But every past experience now simply becomes fuel for the next phase of expansion. As a publicly listed consumer giant, Anta faces relentless pressure from investors craving ever-higher returns, media hungry for headlines, consumers chasing buzz, and its own institutional momentum and ambition. It has no room to hesitate, let alone drift or stall. Like any vessel moving against the current, if it isn’t advancing, it’s falling behind.

By the end of 2025, Anta’s performance had answered many questions—and raised new ones. According to its Q3 financials, both revenue and profit continued to grow steadily. The “Other Brands” category, which includes Descente and Kolon Sport, posted the strongest gains, emerging as a critical growth engine. Meanwhile, the Anta mainline and FILA saw low-single-digit growth.

This reflects a maturing multi-brand matrix, and marks Anta’s entry into a new phase—one driven less by aggressive expansion and more by nuanced operations and long-term brand building. But as history and current global business dynamics show, diversification doesn’t make management any easier. Instead, it demands sharper strategic focus and greater capacity to maintain brand independence. Now that Anta has crossed the 100-billion-yuan revenue milestone, its key challenge is no longer about scaling up, but rather how to sustain upward momentum—especially how to revitalize the group’s core brands.

2024 was the year when Anta, in combination with its international arm Amer Sports, officially joined the 100-billion club, becoming the third global sportswear conglomerate to do so after Nike and adidas. But the group's pace didn’t ease. The year was filled with strategic acquisitions, partnerships, and retail moves that demonstrated a hunger to strengthen and future-proof its global footprint.

In April, Anta announced its acquisition of German outdoor brand Jack Wolfskin for $290 million. This broadened its reach across the outdoor lifestyle spectrum, adding a more accessible and mass-oriented brand to complement its existing high-performance outdoor portfolio—including Arc’teryx, Descente, and Kolon. Together, these brands form a more resilient matrix, capable of weathering cyclical swings in demand.

Then in August, Anta struck another high-profile deal: partnering with leading Korean fashion platform MUSINSA, acquiring a 40% stake and launching a joint venture—MUSINSA China. On December 14, MUSINSA opened its first international flagship store in the heart of Shanghai, bringing its content-driven retail model and accessible fashion to China’s Gen Z shoppers. Born as an online magazine, MUSINSA blends e-commerce with culture and curates a portfolio of brands mostly priced under 1,000 RMB.

For Anta, investing in MUSINSA marked a strategic pivot. It signaled the group’s intention to test a different growth formula—beyond sports, beyond products. When content, culture, and platform dynamics start to outweigh traditional retail in shaping consumer behavior, understanding how younger consumers express their identity and make purchasing decisions becomes a vital brand capability. Anta has long excelled at the “brand + retail” model. MUSINSA, meanwhile, offers a gateway into a new world—“content + platform.” Their partnership lays the groundwork for a broader play: competing for the attention of future Chinese youth.

Adding further intrigue is MUSINSA’s rumored IPO. Reports suggest it may list as early as 2026, with an estimated valuation of 10 trillion KRW (approx. 48.1 billion RMB). Should this go through, Anta’s minority stake could yield outsized returns, financially and strategically.

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