adidas sells mainly through retail partners. In 2025, wholesale was 60% of net sales and direct to consumer 40%: e-commerce 23% and its own 2,022 stores 17%. In 2021 adidas planned to sell about half direct by 2025; instead the direct share has held between 38% and 41% since 2020, every channel grew double digits in 2025, and operating margin recovered to 8.3% on record net sales of โฌ24.8 billion.
Correction (10 Oct 2026): an earlier section of this page, ‘Adidas Distribution Strategy in 2026: What Changed’, and its Key Metrics table (65% direct-to-consumer, $28.5 billion revenue, 2,850 stores, micro-fulfillment centers, 8% of sales from gaming and VR) were not supported by adidas’s reports. We have removed them. All figures now come from adidas’s own annual reports.
How we source: figures on this page come from the company’s own filings (SEC 10-K, 10-Q, prospectus and earnings releases, or its annual report), with the period stated next to each number; outside estimates appear only labelled, with their source and date. Last refreshed October 2026. Our methodology.
adidas reaches consumers through three channels. Wholesale (60%) means sporting-goods chains, department stores, specialist running and football shops and online retailers that buy adidas products and resell them. E-commerce (23%) is adidas’s own websites and apps, including its adiClub membership programme. Own retail (17%) is 2,022 stores: 886 concept stores (flagships, brand centres and concession corners) and 1,136 factory outlets.
Together, e-commerce and own retail are what adidas calls direct to consumer (DTC): 40% of 2025 net sales, or โฌ9,931 million against โฌ14,833 million through wholesale (income statement). adidas describes wholesale as its largest channel and itself as ‘a trusted service partner’ to retailers (Annual Report 2025).
The channel economics
Every sportswear brand trades the same two things. Wholesale buys reach: someone else pays for the stores, the staff and the stock risk, and the brand gets shelf space next to its rivals, at a wholesale price below the shelf price. Direct channels buy margin and data: the brand keeps the full retail price and learns who its customers are, but pays for stores, websites, delivery and the traffic to fill them.
adidas does not report a margin for each channel, so the evidence is indirect. In 2025 its gross margin rose 0.8 points to 51.6%, which adidas attributes to lower product and freight costs, a better business mix and ‘a healthy level of full-price sales’ (income statement). In e-commerce it deliberately chose full price over volume, cutting promotions. Growth came from every channel: wholesale +12%, own retail +13%, e-commerce +16% (currency-neutral, adidas brand).
Buys: a physical showcase: flagships and brand centres, plus outlets that clear inventory.
2,022 stores at the end of 2025: 886 concept stores and 1,136 factory outlets (Annual Report 2025).
Plan vs outcome
In March 2021, under its ‘Own the Game’ strategy, adidas said DTC would account for around half of net sales by 2025 and generate more than 80% of its growth, with e-commerce doubling to โฌ8โ9 billion (adidas press release).
The reports tell a different story. The direct share jumped to 41% in 2020, when lockdowns closed partner stores, fell back to 38% as stores reopened in 2021, and has stayed between 39% and 41% since. In 2025 it was 40%, and e-commerce was 23% of โฌ24.8 billion, roughly โฌ5.7 billion (calculated), below the โฌ8โ9 billion target. adidas leaned back into its retail partners, and profit recovered.
Share of net sales by channel, 2019โ2025
WholesaleDirect to consumer2021 plan: DTC โ half of sales by 2025
Each year from that year’s annual report (linked). *2019: includes Reebok (figures from 2021 on are continuing operations, after Reebok was reclassified as discontinued).
adidas channels: what was planned, what happened
2019
Wholesale 67% of sales
Direct to consumer 33%, including Reebok (2020 report).
Operating margin 8.3%, up from 5.6%; record net sales of โฌ24.8 billion (income statement).
The Business Engineer view
Reach first, then margin
The 2021 plan assumed direct channels would win on both reach and margin. Five years of reports show the limit: direct channels need traffic, and traffic is expensive to buy when retailers are not pushing the brand. When adidas’s products got hot again, its partners gave it more shelf space, and wholesale grew almost as fast as its own channels.
The structural lesson is that channel mix follows brand heat, not the other way round. A brandneeds retailers to want to carry it, and a direct business big enough to set prices and read demand. At 60/40, adidas has both. Compare Nike vs adidas for how the two rivals split their channels.
adidas sells through wholesale partners (60% of 2025 net sales) and directly to consumers (40%), through e-commerce (23%) and 2,022 own stores (17%), according to its Annual Report 2025.
How much of adidas's sales come from wholesale?
60% of net sales in 2025, or โฌ14,833 million (Annual Report 2025). Wholesale grew 12% currency-neutral for the adidas brand.
How many stores does adidas have?
2,022 own-retail stores at the end of 2025: 886 concept stores and 1,136 factory outlets.
Did adidas reach its direct-to-consumer target?
No. In 2021 adidas said DTC would be around half of sales by 2025; in 2025 it was 40%, and it has stayed between 38% and 41% since 2020.
Which adidas channel grew fastest in 2025?
E-commerce, up 16% currency-neutral for the adidas brand, ahead of own retail (+13%) and wholesale (+12%).
How has adidas's channel mix changed since 2019?
Direct to consumer went from 33% of sales in 2019 (including Reebok) to 41% in 2020 during lockdowns, then 38% to 41% from 2021 to 2025 (annual reports).
Does adidas report margins by channel?
No. It reports group gross margin (51.6% in 2025) and operating margin (8.3%), not a margin for wholesale or DTC.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur, HackerNoon and Search Engine People. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
Scroll to Top
Discover more from FourWeekMBA
Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.
