Adidas is bouncing back after a tough few years; Nike isn’t

The three-stripes company has finally recovered from a painful breakup with Ye.

1/24/25 9:47AM

Adidas has been all in on its turnaround, with new CEO Bjørn Gulden, appointed in 2023, working quickly to reverse the 75-year-old company’s fortunes. So far, it’s going well.

Thanks to continued demand for its famous Samba shoes, coupled with a strong festive period, the “brand with the three stripes” reported better-than-expected profits in Q4 2024, with the company’s shares now up ~10% in the last week.

Samba mentality

Booming demand for its retro sneakers — like the 2023 “shoe of the year” Samba, which was so popular that the group had to delay product launches at one point so demand wouldn’t “overheat” last year — has swelled the company’s bottom line. The German sportswear group raked in an operating profit of €57 million ($60 million) in Q4, surprising analysts who were forecasting a loss.

The result represents a full circle moment for the brand, which has had a tumultuous few years after a very public breakup with rapper Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) in 2022, whose Yeezy brand of shoes had made billions for Adidas. Indeed, Adidas shares had dropped by more than 60% since the start of 2022 at their worst, a fall they have since recovered from in full. Rival Nike hasn’t been so lucky.

Adidas shares are making a rebound whilst Nike is still stalling. — Sherwood News

Indeed, Nike is on its own turnaround plan under newly appointed CEO Elliott Hill. Having spent more than three decades at the iconic sports brand, Hill now helms a company facing a very different landscape to the one that Phil Knight, Nike’s founder, navigated.

Long gone are the days when Nike was the plucky upstart. The goliath of the industry is struggling to get rid of its inventory of once high-performing products like Dunk and Air Force 1s, and newcomers like On Running and Hoka are nipping at its heels. Furthermore, now one of its oldest rivals, which was plagued with similar levels of inventory pileup over the last three years, has gotten its mojo back. Indeed, Adidas has finally cleared out its $1.3 billion worth of Yeezy stock, and the company’s shares are all the better for it — Adidas shares have risen around 56% over the past year, way outperforming Nike’s 27% plunge.

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eBay stock slumps on gloomy Q4 outlook despite solid Q3 earnings

Shares of eBay fell as much as 10.5% in premarket trading on Thursday morning after the company gave a lower-than-expected profit forecast for the important holiday shopping season.

The e-commerce giant reported solid numbers for the third quarter on Wednesday, with revenue up 9% as reported to $2.8 billion and gross merchandise volume rising 10% to $20.1 billion, topping the average analyst forecast of $19.4 billion, per Bloomberg.

However, concerns about the future somewhat overshadowed these results.

eBay outlined its profit outlook for the period ending in December to $1.31 to $1.36 a share, with revenue at $2.83 billion to $2.89 billion. According to Bloomberg-compiled data, this broadly matches Wall Street’s estimates for the top line, but misses on the bottom line, with analysts forecasting EPS to come in at $1.39 — suggesting the company expects some further margin pressure.

The company has been facing macroeconomic challenges since the US ended the de minimis tariff exemption in late August, with the online marketplace reliant on shipments. One small silver lining? CFO Peggy Alford highlighted a “less durable trend” on a post-earnings call: that as commodity prices for precious metals boomed, demand for bullion and collectible coins on eBay spiked.