--- title: "Skechers stores cleared, Aokang International loses its second growth curve" type: "Topics" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/topics/40273144.md" description: "Zebra Consumer Shen Tuo In 2025, Aokang International once again delivered an ugly performance report, with both revenue and net profit attributable to the parent company declining, and the scale of losses further expanding. What's more concerning is that the two major brands the company represents have completely collapsed: Skechers stores have been completely cleared out, and Puma stores have only 7 left. This means the company's heavily invested second growth curve of sports brand representation is nearly broken, and in the future, it can only rely on the main Aokang brand to fight alone. Against the backdrop of the continuous shrinkage of its own brands, how can Aokang International reverse the situation of four consecutive years of losses? The pressure is now on the actual controller, Wang Zhentao. Four consecutive years of losses in 2025..." datetime: "2026-04-29T01:07:21.000Z" locales: - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/topics/40273144.md) - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/topics/40273144.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/topics/40273144.md) author: "[斑马消费](https://longbridge.com/en/profiles/6226040.md)" --- # Skechers stores cleared, Aokang International loses its second growth curve Zebra Consumer Shen Tuo In 2025, Aokang International once again delivered a disappointing performance report, with both revenue and net profit attributable to shareholders declining, and the scale of losses further expanding. What drew more attention was the complete collapse of the two major brands the company represented: Skechers stores were completely cleared, and Puma stores were down to just 7. This means the second growth curve the company painstakingly built through sports brand representation has nearly collapsed, leaving it to rely solely on the main Aokang brand to fight alone in the future. Against the backdrop of the continuous contraction of its own brands, how can Aokang International reverse the situation of four consecutive years of losses? The pressure is now on the actual controller, Wang Zhentao. **Four Consecutive Years of Losses** In 2025, Aokang International (603001.SH) once again delivered an embarrassing performance report. For the full year, the company achieved operating revenue of approximately 1.924 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 24.23%, and a net profit loss attributable to shareholders of approximately 241 million yuan, with the loss further widening compared to 2024. The company mainly attributed this to factors such as macroeconomic downturn, weak consumer demand, and intensified industry competition. Meanwhile, structural differentiation in the footwear and apparel industry intensified, with the company's gross profit margin plummeting by 6.99 percentage points year-on-year to 34.88%. This marks the fourth consecutive year of losses for Aokang International since 2022, with cumulative losses exceeding 900 million yuan. However, in the first quarter of 2026, the company's performance saw a major reversal. While operating revenue fell 27.63% year-on-year to 427 million yuan, it achieved a net profit attributable to shareholders of 25.3899 million yuan, turning a profit in one fell swoop. In fact, the turnaround in Q1 mainly came from an increase in gains from changes in fair value, not a comprehensive improvement in core business operations. This also led to a 'vote with their feet' in the secondary market yesterday, with the stock falling 5.52% for the day. With the domestic footwear industry treading on thin ice, Aokang International still engaged in external brand cooperation, especially targeting the rigid demand for warmth in winter travel. Last year, it launched several core product series like Victory 80, but overall, it is in a contraction phase. **Cliff-like Decline in Leather Shoes** The continued weak sales of footwear products is Aokang International's biggest pain point. In 2025, the company sold 6.5715 million pairs of men's shoes, down 11.00% year-on-year; operating revenue was approximately 1.144 billion yuan, down 27.00%, the largest decline in recent years. Notably, in 2022, its men's shoe sales were 8.1209 million pairs, with operating revenue of 1.740 billion yuan. The women's shoe business followed a similar pattern. In 2025, sales volume was 3.4792 million pairs, down 11.04% year-on-year; revenue fell 23.58% year-on-year to 574 million yuan. To improve profitability and reduce operational risks, the company began shifting to a light-asset model as early as 2019, adopting a strategy of primarily outsourcing footwear production supplemented by in-house manufacturing. It advocated for exporting technology and brand while reducing production investment and focusing on brand and channels. Last year, its in-house production and outsourced quantities accounted for 29.52% and 70.48%, respectively. Despite this, the company's two major product categories have continued to suffer heavy setbacks year after year. The core factor is the continuous contraction of demand for traditional business formalwear. With fewer people wearing formal attire, the footwear that complements it naturally shrinks. Of course, this is not a problem faced by Aokang International alone. Red Dragonfly (603116.SH), another footwear industry leader, saw its men's and women's shoe sales decline by 10.29% and 4.43%, respectively, in 2025. Poor sales of footwear products are related to the iteration of mainstream consumer groups. As Generation Z becomes the main consumer force, they prefer sports and casual shoes, while outdated and homogeneous business leather shoes are gradually being marginalized by the market. Last year, Aokang International significantly adjusted its store structure, closing a total of 767 stores. Among them, the main Aokang brand closed 566 stores (including directly operated and franchised stores). **Skechers Stores Cleared to Zero** In fact, Aokang International had long been aware of the decline in its core leather shoe business. Beyond the main Aokang brand, it attempted to cultivate a second growth curve by nurturing agency brands. In August 2015, the company signed a contract with Skechers, the second-largest U.S. sports shoe brand, obtaining the expansion and operation rights for Skechers brand specialty stores in the southern region of mainland China and the right to use Skechers (SKECHERS) logos, with plans to open about 1,000 stores within five years. In 2017, the company cooperated with Swiss Yidong Sports, obtaining distribution rights for the Puma brand in some regions of China. Leveraging the influence of these international brands, the company aimed to move from the leather shoe category into the sports shoe segment, while also combining its own casual brand "Kanglong" to initially build a product matrix of leather shoes, casual wear, and sports. The company made precise designs and coverage in terms of price segments and target consumer groups. The Aokang brand targets the 25-35 age group with mid-to-high-end business fashion products, mainly priced between 399 yuan and 699 yuan; Kanglong focuses on young consumers, concentrated in the 399-599 yuan range; Skechers falls between 399 yuan and 899 yuan, covering sports shoes, apparel, and accessories; Puma is involved in running, football, and other areas, positioned in the 499-899 yuan price segment. The multi-tiered price segments and strong complementarity among the brands covered multiple consumer groups, once making the market optimistic that they would drive the company's long-term performance growth. However, reality fell short of expectations, and Aokang International's agency business continued to suffer defeats. In 2025, Skechers generated operating revenue of 114 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 55.45%, with a gross profit margin of 19.49%, down 10.96 percentage points year-on-year; revenue from other brands was 84 million yuan, down 47.49% year-on-year, with a gross profit margin of only 8.37%; revenue from the self-owned brand Kanglong was 102 million yuan, down 45.29% year-on-year, with a gross profit margin of 37.54%, down 9.40 percentage points year-on-year. The company's goal of expanding to a thousand stores for Skechers in the Chinese market was completely missed. In 2025, Skechers closed 91 directly operated stores and 34 franchised stores, bringing the year-end store count to zero; Puma was left with only 3 directly operated stores and 4 franchised stores, totaling 7. With the second growth curve of sports agency completely collapsing, Aokang International has returned to the era of a single self-owned brand, and the path to profitability remains difficult. ### Related Stocks - [603001.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/603001.CN.md) - [603116.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/603116.CN.md) - [SKX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/SKX.US.md)