Amer Sports (Group) appears to be taking steps to create another winning DTC retail store opportunity, this time with the company’s Wilson brand. From its position as the leading brand in the Group’s Ball & Racquet segment, Wilson Sporting Goods represents a leadership position in ball sports and racquet sports in the U.S., most notably as the Official Football of the NFL, the Official Game Ball for the NBA and WNBA, and a major presence at U.S. Open Tennis, among other partnerships and sponsorships in golf, tennis, basketball, soccer, volleyball and more.
But while the focus of the brand has been the hardgoods (and tennis footwear) business over the last 100+ years, a process also began several years ago to focus and expand on its apparel business, primarily through efforts at owned retail. That focus became a little clearer this week with the appointment of Carrie Ask as the Wilson brand’s new president and CEO.
As reported earlier this week by SGB Media, Ask most recently served as CEO of Helly Hansen, a role she held for nearly four years. Prior, she was chief customer officer at Tailored Brands, Inc., EVP and president of global retail at Levi Strauss & Co. and served nearly four years in senior retail and direct-to-consumer roles at Nike, Inc. She’s also an engineer that focuses on operational roles – in retail.
While introducing the appointment of Ask to the participants on a Tuesday conference call with analysts to discuss fourth quarter earnings, Group CFO Andrew Page, who has also been serving as CEO of Wilson on an interim basis, called out Ask’s bonafides, focusing on her “great experience” in the global softgoods, sports, and outdoor industries. Page failed to stress enough – or maybe it was intentional – that Ask’s experience runs deep in the retail sector of the brands she has worked with over the years. But he did share the growth in that end of the business in 2025 and plans for 2026.
It should not be a surprise then, when looking deeper into the 2025 numbers for the Wilson Sporting Goods business, along with its sister brands in the Ball and Racquet Sports segment (Atek, Demarini, Evoshield and Louisville Slugger) the company has quietly started to expand the owned-store presence globally, increasing door count 58 percent year-over-year in 2025. While the Arc’teryx and Salomon brands have considerably more stores due to earlier expansion in that outdoor, apparel and footwear space, the Wilson business is clearly poised to invest further in the area.
Amer didn’t hire a softgoods retail operations veteran to work on the next great baseball, basketball or golf technology. (see bottom for more on CEO Wilson hire)
Wilson had 83 total stores open at year-end – including 77 Tennis 360 doors – up from 53 total doors at the end of 2024. The brand now represents 12 percent of total brand owned-retail stores in the Amer Sports universe, up from 10.5 percent in 2024. Another key performance indicator that may reflect this focus is the fact the segment’s omni-comp measurement – an important KPI in Amer world – posted 19 percent growth in 2025, up from 5 percent growth in 2024.
The segment’s omni-comp growth, which reflects year-over-year revenue growth from owned-retail stores and e-commerce sites that have been open at least 13 months, came in at 20 percent in the fourth quarter, outpacing the Group average of 16 percent growth across all brands and business segments in the period.
On the conference call, Amer Sports CEO James Zheng noted that Wilson Softgoods continued its explosive growth – doubling in 2025 – including very strong double-digit growth in the fourth quarter.
“Our Wilson Softgoods offering is resonating with consumers in both Wholesale and DTC channels, and across all major regions,” he shared.
Page said 10 new owned Wilson brand store opened globally in Q4, split between the Greater China and APAC region, clearly taking a page from the ramp up for the Arc’teryx and Salomon businesses.
“Wilson Tennis 360 shops are performing well in China and we opened 13 new shops in Q4 including partner doors,” Page added. “This brings the total owned and partner store count to 77 [doors].” He said they plan to open approximately 30 Wilson Tennis 360 shops in China, between owned and partner doors in 2026.
“APAC also continues to drive meaningful Wilson Softgoods growth,” Page continued. “Our first store in Japan, in Tokyo’s Marunouchi district, and two stores in Melbourne, Australia, are off to great starts.”
“Our expansion into the warmer southern markets [in the U.S.] is continuing to drive strong results,” he continued. “Our Dallas North Park Mall continues to perform very well, and we continue to expand our new Tennis 360 concept store into more southern and coastal locations, including our new shops in Beverly Hills and Miami.”
Page said Wilson also continues to expand the Tennis 360 offering into more Dick’s Sporting Goods locations, including House of Sports.
Ball & Racquet Segment Q4 Summary
Ball & Racquet segment revenue increased 14 percent year-over-year to $337 million in Q4, said to be driven by continued strength in Softgoods, a return to growth in Baseball, and an acceleration in Golf.
Zheng said the growth in Baseball was driven by strong bat sales, led by the Louisville Slugger Supra and five other bats among the Top 10 this season.
Segment growth was led by Softgoods, which was said to be “up very strong double digits” with continued momentum in all regions. Softgoods now represents approximately 15 percent of segment revenue. Page added that Softgoods generated strong e-commerce comp growth in the North America region.
Racquets had slower growth in the quarter, reportedly due to timing of product launches and wholesale shipments, while underlying demand remains strong. Still, the full year performance for the Racquet category appeared to keep the momentum.
“With double-digit growth, 2025 was a great year for racquets, and we have exciting performance racquet launches in 2026,” Page offered.
“Wilson is unique in its ability to outfit tennis athletes from head to toe, including racquets and accessories,” Zheng noted. “And we are excited to have signed six new Wilson Tennis 360 athletes on tour, including world top-10 player Alex de Minaur, bringing our total count to 16 players.”
Beyond Tennis, Baseball reportedly returned to growth driven by strong performance in bats driven by successful product launches in fall 2025. Golf ended the year with improved margins and solid growth especially in EMEA and APAC, said to be driven by a stronger product offering.
In other categories, Page said Wilson saw Inflatables stabilizing in Q4 and returning to slight growth, following a challenging first nine months of 2025.
Regionally, the Ball & Racquet segment growth rate was led by China, followed by “meaningfully accelerating growth” in the Americas, EMEA, and partially offset by a slight decline in APAC.
Segment Operating Margin
Ball & Racquet segment adjusted operating profit margin increased 110 basis points year-over-year to negative 2.6 percent, said to be driven by solid gross margin expansion related to less promotional activity and better regional and channel mix. This was partly offset by SG&A deleverage due to investments in Softgoods.
Full Year Segment Summary
Ball & Racquet revenues increased 13 percent year-over-year to $1.31 billion for the 2025 full-year period. Segment operating margin improved 155 basis points year-over-year to 3.6 percent of segment revenue.
Segment Outlook
Looking ahead to 2026 guidance, Ball & Racquet segment revenue is estimated to increase in the range of 7 percent to 9 percent versus full-year 2025. Segment operating margin is expected to be in the range of 4.7 percent to 5.0 percent of segment revenue for the year.
Image courtesy Wilson Sporting Goods/Amer Sports
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See below for additional coverage of Amer Sports’ Q4 and full-year 2025 results and happenings.
Amer Sports Names Apparel Retail Exec Carrie Ask President of Wilson Brand
EXEC: Salomon Reaches $2B Milestone in 2025 as Sportstyle Footwear Gains Continue
EXEC: Arc’teryx Brand Sees Women’s Growth Take the Lead in Q4
Amer Sports Rides Arc’teryx and Salomon Again to 28 Percent Q4 Growth
