Record Data Sheet
Both companies released their latest results within the past four weeks, and they tell opposite stories. Adidas just announced its best first half ever. Nike just closed out a nearly flat fiscal year, with its most troubled market, China, falling even faster than before.
One thing to flag before we start: the calendars don’t match
Adidas reports on a calendar year basis, so its “first half of 2026” covers literally January through June of this year. Nike reports on a fiscal year basis that runs June to May, so its fiscal 2026 covers June 2025 through May 2026, and there’s no clean “first half of 2026” in its books. To keep the comparison as fair as possible, this piece uses Adidas’s calendar first half alongside Nike’s fiscal fourth quarter (March through May 2026, its most recent and closest in time) and its full fiscal 2026 year, flagging exactly which period each figure refers to.
How Adidas did in its first half of 2026
Adidas closed the first half of 2026 with revenue of 13.3 billion euros, up 14% at constant currency, its best first half ever, according to its official release from July 30, 2026.
Operating profit rose 11%, to 1.279 billion euros, with an operating margin of 9.6%.In the second quarter alone, sales reached 6.743 billion euros, up 14% at constant currency, partly driven by the World Cup: the Performance division (soccer and running, mainly) grew 39%. Gross margin improved 0.8 percentage points, to 52.5%, despite 212 million euros in extra marketing spend tied to World Cup campaigns. Quarterly operating profit rose just 5%, below what the market expected, and Adidas shares fell more than 16% on the day of the announcement.
Adidas raised its growth guidance for all of 2026, from a previous “high single digit” range to between 9% and 10% at constant currency, while keeping its full year operating profit target at around 2.3 billion euros.
How Nike did in its fiscal 2026
Nike closed its fiscal 2026 (June 2025 through May 2026) with revenue of 46.4 billion dollars, essentially flat versus the year before (down 2% at constant currency), according to its official release from June 30, 2026. Full year net income slipped slightly, from 3.22 billion to 3.11 billion dollars.
In the fiscal fourth quarter alone (March through May 2026), revenue came in at 11.0 billion dollars, down 1% as reported and down 4% at constant currency. Greater China, the market that has worried Nike the longest, fell 12% for the quarter, to 1.3 billion dollars, though that still beat what the market expected. CEO Elliott Hill acknowledged on the earnings call that “the results aren’t there yet, particularly in Nike Sportswear and Jordan streetwear.”
Gross margin for the quarter jumped 890 basis points, to 49.2%, but nearly all of that came from a one time benefit of roughly 986 million dollars tied to an expected tariff refund, following a US Supreme Court ruling against part of the Trump administration’s tariff policy. Strip out that one time effect, and underlying gross margin would have actually slipped slightly, to 40.2%.
The two, side by side
With all the fiscal calendar caveats already on the table, the contrast is clear. Adidas is growing hard on both revenue (up 14%) and operating profit (up 11%) in its first half of 2026. Nike, in its most recent data, has revenue declining (down 1% reported last quarter) and full year net income slightly below the prior year, propped up in part by a one time tax benefit rather than genuine operational improvement.
What’s happening with shareholder returns
Nike returned about 2.5 billion dollars to shareholders across its entire fiscal 2026: 2.4 billion in dividends (up 5% from the year before) and just 123 million in share buybacks, asharp drop from the roughly 3 billion it had repurchased the prior fiscal year, a sign the company is being more cautious with cash while the business hasn’t clearly turned a corner.
Adidas, in its first half of 2026 alone, paid out 491 million euros in dividends and executed 525 million euros of its new buyback program, worth up to 1 billion euros for the year, against a backdrop of rising profit, not falling profit.
Frequently asked questions
- How much did Adidas grow in the first half of 2026? 14% at constant currency, to 13.3 billion euros in revenue, its best first half ever, according to its official release on July 30, 2026.
- How much revenue did Nike bring in during fiscal 2026? 46.4 billion dollars, essentially flat compared to the year before (down 2% at constant currency), according to its official release on June 30, 2026.
- Why can’t you directly compare the “first half” of both companies? Because Adidas reports on a calendar year basis (January through December) and Nike reports on a fiscal year basis (June through May). Adidas’s calendar first half of 2026 has no exact equivalent on Nike’s calendar, so this piece uses Nike’s most recent quarter (March through May 2026) as the closest available comparison.
- How did Nike do in China last quarter? Poorly. Sales in Greater China fell 12% in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2026, to 1.3 billion dollars, though that still beat market expectations, according to the company’s own release.
- Why did Nike’s gross margin jump so much if the business didn’t improve? Because of a one time accounting effect: an expected benefit of roughly 986 million dollars tied to a tariff refund following a US Supreme Court ruling. Without that effect, underlying gross margin would have slipped slightly, according to the company itself.
- How much has each brand returned to shareholders in 2026? Nike returned about 2.5 billion dollars across its entire fiscal 2026, with share buybacks falling sharply from the year before. Adidas has already returned more than 1 billion euros in just its first half, between dividends and buybacks.
- Did Adidas raise or lower its guidance for 2026? It raised it. Adidas lifted its constant currency growth target from a previous “high single digit” range to between 9% and 10% for the full year, according to its July 30, 2026 release.