In his first official visit to China since taking over as Adidas CEO last September, Kasper Rorsted said that adidas' margin in Greater China of 35% last year would "stabilize and slightly decline". Meanwhile North America, with a margin of only 6.3% last year was playing "catch-up" (rising from 2.5% in 2015).

"We expect a dramatic improvement in margins in the United States, but we expect over time also a slowdown in the margin development in China," he said.

adidas’ Greater China sales, about half those of North America in 2013, reached 16% of its global total last year, just shy of North America's 18%.

For the current fiscal year the Germany-based company still expects to generate double digit growth in China and remains on track to open 2 000 stores this year and reach 12 000 by 2020.