Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 4, 2026
4 min readLast updated: April 2, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleAdidas forecasts that its 2026 operating profit will climb to around €2.3 billion, buoyed by a projected high-single‑digit increase in currency‑neutral revenues adding €2 billion despite €400 million headwinds from U.S. tariffs and adverse exchange rates.
By Linda Pasquini and Helen Reid
BERLIN, March 4 (Reuters) - Adidas shares tumbled more than 7% on Wednesday after the German sportswear maker issued a 2026 profit outlook that fell short of market expectations, eclipsing news that it had extended CEO Bjorn Gulden's contract through 2030.
Investors have grown more pessimistic about the prospects for growth at sportswear brands, with companies such as Adidas heavily exposed to manufacturing hubs in Southeast Asia and facing steep U.S. tariffs on imports from Vietnam and other countries.
Conflict in the Middle East has added to the concerns, with stores across the region forced to close in recent days and one Adidas store in Israel damaged in an attack.
Adidas forecast operating profit of around 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion) this year, implying a margin of less than 9%, lower than the 10% analysts expected. The group said it now expects to achieve a margin of more than 10% only in 2028.
At a press conference, Gulden sought to reassure investors that the brand is winning more customers, while chief financial officer Harm Ohlmeyer said Adidas would have hit a 10% margin this year if it weren't for the impact of U.S. tariffs and a weak dollar, which together will reduce 2026 earnings by 400 million euros.
"We are working in an environment that is not easy," Gulden said. "Right now we are in the middle of a huge crisis for the whole world in the Middle East. That means that agility and speed and reacting to reality is more important than having a plan that you talk about."
The 400 million euro estimate does not account for recent tariff changes after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's previous tariffs, Gulden added, noting potential "upside".
Adidas has faced an additional tariff level of around 19% overall on its imports to the U.S., according to Citi analyst Monique Pollard, meaning the new blanket tariff rate of 10% that Trump imposed last month is an improvement - though the administration plans to raise that to 15% this week.
The conflict in the Middle East will also weigh on revenue, Gulden said, with some stores forced to close. One Adidas store in Israel run by a franchise partner was damaged in an attack but was closed at the time, chief commercial officer Mathieu Sidokpohou said. Adidas has 350 stores in the region, 200 of them operated by franchise partners.
The extension of Gulden's term - previously due to end in 2027 - reinforced confidence in his strategy for Adidas, which reported a loss in 2023 but has since recovered.
Gulden took over in early 2023 with a mandate to steady Adidas after its split with rapper Ye over his antisemitic comments triggered a crisis that exposed how much the brand had relied on the Yeezy sneaker line.
"Gulden has proven to be a "best-in-class CEO" when it comes to localisation strategies as well as sustaining trends and pushing successful products over an extended period of time," said Felix Jonathan Dennl, analyst at Frankfurt-based Metzler.
Adidas also proposed Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris as its new chairman to replace Thomas Rabe, who has faced shareholder criticism for holding too many other executive roles.
Adidas said it expects currency-adjusted sales to grow at a high-single-digit rate in 2027 and 2028. It reported 2025 sales of 24.8 billion euros, up 10% in currency-adjusted terms, and operating profit of 2.06 billion.
Sales in North America, Adidas' second-biggest market, grew 10% in currency-adjusted terms last year but fell 1% in euro terms as the dollar's sharp decline weighed.
Gulden said the company had kept discounting in check and continued to sell "the right product in the right amount" across markets. Adidas proposed a dividend increase of 40% to 2.80 euros per share for 2025.
($1 = 0.8625 euros)
(Reporting by Alexander Huebner in Herzogenaurach, Linda Pasquini in Berlin and Helen Reid in Paris. Editing by Bernadette Baum, Louise Heavens and Mark Potter)
Adidas expects its operating profit to increase to around 2.3 billion euros in 2026.
Despite an estimated 400 million euro negative impact from U.S. tariffs and unfavorable currency developments, Adidas still forecasts growing profits.
Adidas expects currency-neutral revenues to grow at a high-single-digit rate.
In 2025, Adidas reported sales of 24.8 billion euros and an operating profit of 2.06 billion euros.
Explore more articles in the Finance category
