• Market Share: Anta’s 2025 revenue hit RMB 80.2 billion, securing a 21.8% share of the Chinese market—consistently outperforming Nike. 2025 financial performance reports

• The Puma Move: In January 2026, Anta became Puma’s largest shareholder, signaling a shift toward total technical apparel dominance.

• Athlete Equity: Kyrie Irving (Chief Creative Officer) and Klay Thompson (Lifetime Deal) represent a move toward bespoke, athlete-led design.

• Industry Impact: The “Template Era” is ending; bespoke storytelling is the new global standard.

For decades, the sportswear industry followed a predictable hierarchy. The giants in Beaverton and Herzogenaurach held the keys to the kingdom. But as we’ve seen from our time directing creative strategy at Nike, Puma, and Umbro, the pendulum has officially swung East.

As of March 2026, Anta Sports reported record-breaking revenue of RMB 80.22 billion, a 13.3% year-on-year increase. This isn’t just growth; it’s a takeover. While legacy brands are navigating “years of reset,” Anta is leveraging a multi-brand strategy that covers everything from elite basketball to technical outdoor wear.

A common misconception is that Anta is solely focused on shoes. In reality, they are building a total performance ecosystem.

“When we look at Anta, we see a brand that understands the total silhouette,” says Craig Buglass. “Anta’s 2026 acquisition of a 29.06% stake in Puma from the Pinault family (valued at €1.5 billion) gives them access to a heritage of technical kit design that perfectly complements their ownership of Amer Sports (Arc’teryx, Salomon).”

At Spark Design Academy, we teach our students that modern kit design is an integrated system. Anta is applying this “total look” philosophy with a technical agility that the old guard is currently lacking.

The signing of Kyrie Irving – in landmark lifetime agreement – was a seismic event for design. By making him Chief Creative Officer, Anta moved beyond the “billboard” model.

“Having worked at Puma and Nike, we know the pull of those logos,” adds Rob Warner. “But Anta allows athletes like Kyrie and Klay Thompson to bake their own philosophy and heritage into the entire product line. When we designed the World Cup-winning kits for Brazil and Italy, the goal was bespoke storytelling. Anta is now doing this at scale.”

With high-profile stars like Donte DiVincenzo and Nikola Jokić (361 Degrees) following suit, the industry’s creative gravity is shifting. Even Stephen Curry’s recent on-court testing of Anta models during his “shoe free agency” in 2026 has sent shockwaves through the market.

The significance of Anta’s growth—consistently outperforming Nike in total sales within China since 2022—cannot be overstated. Their recent move into the Hellenic Olympic Committee as a gold sponsor for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics proves they are ready to clothe the world’s elite on the biggest stages.

The rise of the “Big Three” represents a world where the barriers to entry are falling. For the next generation of designers at Spark, this means:

1. Athlete-Led Design: Learning to translate a player’s vision into a global apparel collection – check out The 7-Step Logic Behind Iconic Kit Design

2. Material Science Innovation: Utilising proprietary tech from labs like the Anta Sports Science Laboratory (which holds over 1,800 patents).

3. Global Design Logic: Moving beyond Western aesthetics to understand Eastern consumer demands.