Mizuno Corporation · Year ended March 2026

Direct sales in Japan helped Mizuno’s profit grow

Mizuno makes and sells sporting goods, including football shoes, golf clubs and baseball equipment. It also applies sports-product development knowledge to Sportstyle footwear and products for the workplace.

1 primary sourcesPublished 2026-10-26Updated 2026-10-26

A salesperson presents an unbranded shoe to an adult customer across a shop counter

Make the shoe and sell directly to the wearer

The shoe and its route to the wearer

Mizuno links more direct selling of Sportstyle shoes in Japan with a higher gross margin.

Apply sports-product knowledge

Sportstyle shoes are one application described in the results.

Mizuno sells to the consumer

The customer buys through the maker’s direct sales channel.

A schematic view of the product and direct-selling relationship.

Source: financial results, PDF p.4

41.0% → 41.9%

Consolidated gross margin: years ended March 2025 → March 2026

At group level, Mizuno also says gross-margin improvement from stronger DTC and other factors contributed to business growth.

Dividing gross profit by sales gives 98,558÷240,335 for the earlier year and 108,467÷259,045 for the latest year. Both amounts are in millions of yen. Our calculation, rounded to one decimal place, rises from about 41.0% to 41.9%. A larger proportion of sales remained after cost of sales.

This ratio covers all regions and products. The affected former European branches contribute nine months in the earlier year and twelve in the latest year. The release does not disclose the margin on Japanese DTC alone or quantify its contribution to the improvement.

Golf moved differently in the Americas and Korea

CONCEPT MAP

Different regional influences on profit

A summary of the company’s explanations for the year ended March 2026.

Selling Mizuno products

Japan: the sales routeMore direct sales, centered on Sportstyle, improved gross margin
Americas: supply costsTariffs pressured profit despite strong golf sales
Asia: product mixHigher-margin golf lost sales amid a weak Korean market

Europe’s growth also includes a change in months consolidated

DATA VIEW

Japan’s role in regional operating profit

Regional operating profit for the year ended March 2026. Bars use ¥ million and labels ¥ billion, on one zero-based scale. Affected former European branches contribute twelve months this year versus nine in the prior year; only current-year amounts are plotted.

Japan¥15.218bn

Europe¥1.410bn

Americas¥2.423bn

Asia and Oceania¥3.565bn

Source: financial results, PDF p.18. The adjustment eliminating intersegment transactions is −¥14m. Amounts are truncated below ¥1m, so displayed figures do not reconcile exactly to consolidated operating profit.

THE VIEW AFTER THE NUMBERS

What the numbers suggest

Japan’s operating-profit increase exceeded Mizuno’s consolidated increase in the year ended March 2026. Within Japan, growth in direct selling to consumers, centered on Sportstyle shoes, supported an improvement in gross margin.

Tariff costs weighed on the Americas, while golf demand and product mix affected Asia and Oceania. Japan expanded direct selling while overseas businesses faced different cost and demand pressures. Selling products under the same brand leaves each region with different work to do to improve profit.

Primary sources used

Consolidated financial results, year ended March 2026 (Japanese)

Mizuno Corporation · 2026-05-12

Pages used: p.4 / p.4,18 / p.4,9 / p.5

Open source →