European Sporting Goods: Q2 Wrap – a tough quarter but too early to call a structural slowdown

Research evidence excerpt

J P M O R G A N

Europe Equity Research

21 August 2026

European Sporting Goods

Q2 Wrap – a tough quarter but too early to call a

structural slowdown

Q2 has been a tough reporting season for the European Sporting Goods companies.

Limited guidance upgrades (and a few downgrades) have weighed on the sector,

with adidas -12%, On -20%, Puma -5% and JD Sports -14% on their results days.

Growth is slowing as brands prioritise full-price DTC sales in a highly promotional

market. On the other hand, a DTC-led growth model comes with a cost, especially

as brands stepped up marketing and activations to drive online and store traffic. Our

discussions with investors so far clearly indicate concerns about a structural

slowdown in sector profit growth. While we do not expect market conditions to

improve materially over the next two quarters, there is limited evidence to

conclude that there is a structural slowdown in footwear demand. Meanwhile, JD

Sports’ update yesterday suggests that inventory remains controlled and both

brands and retailers look disciplined on supply. We see scope for wholesale order

growth to re-accelerate into Q4-26 and 2027 as newness builds (notably at adidas

and On), and upcoming CMDs should remind investors that newness pipelines

remain solid into the new year. Meanwhile, expectations have reset into Q3

following recent results. We remain OW on adidas and On.

European Luxury & Sporting Goods

Wendy Liu AC

(44-20) 3493-9733

J.P. Morgan Securities plc

Chiara Battistini

(39-02) 8895-2700

J.P. Morgan Securities plc/ J.P. Morgan Securities

(Asia Pacific) Limited

Apurva Vishwaraj

J.P. Morgan Securities plc

Victoria Saden

(44-20) 3493-0435

J.P. Morgan Securities plc

Specialist Sales contact details:

(44-20) 3493-3709

How promotional is the market? A quick look at the Online channel: We

ran a small “discount breadth” screen (share of products on markdown) across

brand.com and key multi-brand sites (JD Sports, Foot Locker) in the US, UK

and France (see Figure 3 to Figure 11). Discounts appear broad-based across

channels, suggesting consumers have ample choice before trading up to fullprice. On and adidas screen among the least discounted on multi-brand

…