Li Ning (02331) 2025 Interim Report: Focus on professional sports Total sales of professional running shoes exceeded 14 million pairs in the first half of the year

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on August 21, 2025, Li Ning Co., Ltd. (02331) announced the 2025 interim results. In the first half of the year, Li Ning continued to implement the core strategy of “single brand, multiple categories, and multiple channels”, operating steadily, focusing on professional sports, further consolidating its business foundation, and actively investing in business development. It achieved revenue of 14.82 billion yuan, an increase of 3.3% over the previous year. In the first half of the year, Li Ning's gross profit was 7.41 billion yuan, up 2.5% year on year. The overall gross margin was 50.0%, net profit was 1.74 billion yuan, and the net interest rate was 11.7%. At the same time, Li Ning maintains abundant cash flow and healthy and manageable inventories, laying an important foundation for steady development.

Mr. Li Ning, Executive Chairman and Co-CEO of Li Ning Group, said, “Currently, market challenges and opportunities are intertwined. We will maintain a prudent attitude, continue to consolidate the basic business market, pay close attention to market trends, actively seize and seize possible structural opportunities, promote the Group's long-term sustainable growth through a series of strategic measures, and strive to become the professional sports brand preferred by consumers.”

Strengthen the mentality of professional sports brands: strategically lay out top sports resources and continue to increase technological research and development

In the first half of the year, Li Ning maintained the strategic strength of a single brand, strategically invested in top professional sports resources, continued to strengthen scientific and technological research and development, continuously enhanced the professional sports image, and consolidated the foundation of Li Ning's brand development.

With long-term brand strength and technical accumulation in the field of professional sports, the Li Ning brand became the official partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee and the Chinese Sports Delegation in 2025-2028. Through high-quality products and efficient services, the Li Ning brand will comprehensively support the Chinese sports delegation in the international arena. In the first half of the year, around this top sports resource, the Li Ning brand launched a marketing campaign with the theme of “China Glory, Li Ning's Companion”, and has been efficiently implemented in more than 5,200 stores across the country, presenting consumers with the status of a partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee and strengthening the brand's professional image as a staunch supporter of Chinese sports.

In the first half of 2025, Li Ning's R&D investment increased 8.7% year on year. In the past 10 years, Li Ning's total R&D investment has exceeded 3.8 billion yuan. At the same time, Li Ning's ability to transform from scientific and technological research achievements to product applications continues to increase.

Thanks to the focus on professional sports positioning and long-term accumulation in scientific and technological research and development, Li Ning's professional product revenue share continued to grow to over 60% in the first half of the year, driving business growth. Shoe products accounted for 56% of revenue, indicating a barrier for professional sports brands.

Launched in 2024, Chaoying Technology has been applied to many new 2025 products and received market recognition — “Yueying 5 PRO” is the first jogging shoe model equipped with super technology, further improving the technical layout of Li Ning's professional running shoe matrix; “ULTRALIGHT 2025,” an actual basketball shoe launched in conjunction with Chaoying Technology, has seized the opportunities in the lightweight basketball market and has become a hot product in the basketball category.

During the reporting period, Li Ning also announced that it will join hands with the National Space Administration's Press and Publicity Center to jointly promote aerospace science and technology to empower sports innovation, apply advanced aerospace technology to Li Ning's professional sports equipment, and promote the application and transformation of aerospace science and technology in the field of professional sports. In the first half of the year, the two technological transformation achievements of “space quick-drying” and “aerospace sunscreen” applied to professional sports equipment were unveiled and received good feedback from the market.

Deepen the development momentum of multiple categories: continue to cultivate multiple sports categories, and the running and comprehensive training categories lead growth

In the first half of the year, the Li Ning brand continued to cultivate the six core categories of running, basketball, training, badminton, table tennis, and sports and leisure, while actively grasping market trends and expanding new sports categories such as outdoor sports, tennis, and pickleball. Among them, the three major sports categories of running, basketball, and general training accounted for 67% of retail sales.

The running category continues to break through, enhance the mentality of professional runners, and achieve a 15% increase in retail sales. In the first half of the year, the omni-channel sales of Li Ning's running shoes exceeded 14 million pairs. Among them, the running shoe matrix centered on the “Ultralight”, “Red Rabbit”, and “Flying Electric” series showed strong product competitiveness. The sales volume of the three series of running shoes exceeded 5.26 million pairs in half a year, achieving continuous growth. In the first half of the year, Li Ning helped signed athletes win 44 championships and reached the podium 84 times in domestic and international running events. In the 2025 Beijing Half Marathon, Li Ning running shoes became the top most popular brand among runners who finished the race within 90 minutes, accounting for 61.35%.

The basketball category continues to focus on the three major product lines of professional basketball, “Wade” and “anti-military”. Through independent styles and product positioning, it is rooted in scientific and technological innovation, and deeply harnessing the star effect to stabilize Li Ning's influence in the basketball market. Li Ning signed player Yang Hansen to become the third Chinese player selected in the first round of the NBA draft. Li Ning has created an exclusive logo for athletes incorporating Oriental aesthetics, and will continue to accompany Yang Hansen to compete in top international arenas.

Comprehensive training category technology enabled product upgrades and achieved a 15% year-on-year increase in retail sales. Relying on “space quick-drying” and “space sunscreen” technology, we launched quick-drying clothes and mirrored sunscreen clothing, which received good market feedback and helped grow the category business.

After years of accumulation, the badminton category has achieved outstanding market performance. It continues to expand its influence and market position in the field of apparel, sneakers and equipment. In particular, sales of rackets and rackets have maintained high growth, and sales of professional high-end rackets have remained industry-leading.

The table tennis category is influential and competitive in the global table tennis field. In the first half of the year, product iterative upgrading and global event marketing continued to be the core driving force, consolidating the brand's professional sports image in both directions in professional competition and the mass consumer market.

While consolidating the advantages of core categories, Li Ning is actively seizing new market opportunities and showing good development potential in the layout of segments such as outdoor, tennis, and pickleball.

Steady operation consolidates the foundation: healthy and controllable inventory, continuous optimization of channel structure

In the first half of the year, Li Ning continued to optimize operational efficiency and continuously consolidate the business foundation around various aspects such as channel layout, inventory management, e-commerce operation, supply chain optimization, and logistics layout.

In terms of channels, Li Ning is actively building a multi-dimensional channel network to systematically promote deepening market coverage and upgrading operational efficiency. Continuously optimize the channel structure, promote innovative store planning and layout in high-level markets by deepening strategic collaboration with top commercial entities and leading Ole projects; implement in-depth expansion in emerging markets, and optimize the channel hierarchy to expand market share. As of June 30, 2025, the number of Li Ning stores (including the Li Ning brand and Li Ning YOUNG) was 7,534.

Inventory management has always been the focus of Li Ning's operations. In the first half of the year, Li Ning's omni-channel inventory ratio remained at 4 months. The company's inventory turnover period was 61 days, the storage age structure remained healthy, and the inventory situation was at an industry-leading healthy level.

In terms of e-commerce operations, in the face of the market environment under pressure from the industry, we adhere to a steady management strategy and continue to promote the overall improvement of operational efficiency through online and offline linkage, exclusive marketing IP creation, and precise node layout. E-commerce business indicators are generally in line with expectations, and online direct sales have increased the number of units, which has become an important driving force for the Group's business growth.

The overall trend of Li Ning's YOUNG business is improving. It is developing steadily in product optimization, channel construction, retail efficiency improvement, and brand marketing, focusing on improving its professional image and market share. In the first half of the year, offline retail traffic increased by a low of 10%-20% year-on-year.

On the supply chain side, Li Ning continues to promote deep optimization and strategic upgrading of the supply chain, focusing on the four core goals of quality control, delivery guarantee, cost optimization and sustainable development, and has achieved remarkable results. During this period, the Group made breakthrough progress in its flexible supply capacity, successfully expanded to an e-commerce exclusive product line, and built a rolling order system and cross-channel coordination mechanism to maximize market demand. Furthermore, we continue to deeply integrate the concept of sustainability into supply chain practices, effectively promote the implementation of green products, and exceed the target number of orders for green friendly products.

In the first half of the year, Li Ning vigorously promoted the strategic construction of the logistics system, focusing on the three core directions of omni-channel logistics integration, digital upgrading and automation optimization, to achieve comprehensive improvement in logistics efficiency and accurate optimization of cost control. During the period, the launch of the central warehouse in Nanning marks that the group has completed the layout of the national logistics and warehousing network.

Looking forward to the future, Li Ning said that it will firmly establish the core strategy of “single brand, multiple categories, and multiple channels” and continue to optimize “Li Ning-style experience value” around the four aspects of building a competitive advantage of products, deepening the effectiveness of cooperation with the Chinese Olympic Committee, focusing on improving business quality and efficiency, and consolidating the foundation for business development. In the second half of the year, Li Ning will continue to use steady management and pragmatic development as the base, drive business growth with professional products and categories, and optimize channel efficiency to promote long-term healthy and sustainable growth.