Columbia Sportswear (NASDAQ:COLM) reported third-quarter financial results on Thursday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
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Summary
Columbia Sportswear reported Q3 2026 results exceeding revenue and earnings guidance, driven by early shipping of delayed orders and improved U.S. business trends.
Net sales increased 2% to $963 million, with international markets leading growth and a modest decline in U.S. sales due to supply chain delays.
E-commerce momentum was strong, with a strategic focus on full-price sales and attracting new dynamic and active consumers, contributing to DTC growth.
The company emphasized successful marketing campaigns and product innovations, notably in fleece and footwear, which resonated well with younger audiences.
For Q4 2026, Columbia anticipates 3.5% to 7% sales growth and EPS between $1.85 to $2.10, with a full-year sales outlook revised to 2% to 3% growth.
Management highlighted ongoing strategic efforts under the Accelerate growth strategy, emphasizing product, marketing, and consumer engagement improvements.
The company maintains a healthy financial position with $230 million in cash and no debt, despite inventory increases due to supply chain disruptions.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Columbia Sportswear third quarter 2026 financial results. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. If you have any questions or comments during the presentation, you may press star one on your phone to enter the question queue at any time, and we will open the floor for your questions and comments after the presentation. It is now my pleasure to hand the floor over to your host, Matt Tucker.
Sir, the floor is yours.
Matt Tucker (Investor Relations)
Good afternoon and thanks for joining us to discuss Columbia Sportswear Company’s third quarter results. In addition to the earnings release, we furnished an 8-K containing a detailed CFO commentary and financial review presentation explaining our results. This document is also available on our investor relations website, investor.columbia.com. With me today on the call are Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tim Boyle, Co-Presidents Joe Boyle and Peter Bragdon, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jim Swanson, and Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, and General Counsel Rochelle Luther.
This conference call will contain forward-looking statements regarding Columbia’s expectations, anticipations, or beliefs about the future. These statements are expressed in good faith and are believed to have a reasonable basis. However, each forward-looking statement is subject to many risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from what is projected. Many of these risks and uncertainties are described in Columbia’s SEC filings.
We caution that forward-looking statements are inherently less reliable than historical information. We do not undertake any duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this conference call to conform the forward-looking statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations. I’d also like to point out that during the call we may reference certain non-GAAP financial measures, including constant currency net sales. For further information about non-GAAP financial measures and results, including a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures and an explanation of management’s rationale for referencing these non-GAAP measures, please refer to the Supplemental Financial Information section and financial tables included in our earnings release and the appendix of our CFO commentary and financial review.
Following our prepared remarks, we will host a Q&A period during which we will limit each caller to two questions so we can get to everyone by the end of the hour. Now I’ll turn the call over to Tim.
Tim Boyle (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Matt. Good evening. Good afternoon. For the third quarter, we’re pleased to report results that exceeded our quarterly revenue and earnings guidance. Our better-than-expected revenue growth primarily reflected a portion of delayed fall ’26 wholesale orders shipping earlier than expected, coupled with improved underlying business trends in the U.S. Our operating margin also exceeded expectations. Gross margin upside was driven by higher full-price realization and favorable U.S. DTC freight costs.
Despite elevated fuel prices, SG&A expenses were lower than planned, declining year over year and demonstrating healthy operating leverage on disciplined spend management. Our business outside the U.S. and Canada, which represents roughly 35% of global net sales, continues to lead our growth and maintained its strong momentum with sales up 9% versus the prior year. Our U.S. business declined 1% but would have grown if not for the supply chain-related delays impacting the timing of wholesale shipments.
We’re particularly pleased with the momentum we saw in DTC e-commerce, which provides the pinnacle expression of our brands. U.S. e-commerce grew mid-single-digit percent in the quarter, including high-single-digit percent growth for the Columbia brand. This momentum accelerated through the quarter, including strong early sell-through of fall ’26 products. Importantly, it also came with reduced promotions, consistent with our strategy of repositioning e-commerce as a more full-price channel.
Our U.S. brick-and-mortar sales grew modestly. Stronger productivity more than offset continued traffic headwinds at our outlet doors amid a challenging macro environment. Overall, we’re highly encouraged by our third quarter performance in the U.S. Trends for the Columbia brand are stabilizing, and we’re seeing continued tangible signs of progress with the Accelerate growth strategy. We are seeing this progress not only in the quality of our U.S. e-commerce business but also the consumers we are attracting.
Over the past two quarters, growth of new consumers has accelerated, and the third quarter represented the strongest growth in new consumers since 2023. An increased share of our e-commerce sales can be attributed to purchases by our target dynamic, active, and professional elite consumer groups. This momentum in e-commerce reflects the combined progress we’re making in elevating our brand, product, marketing, and marketplace through Accelerate, not any single factor, product, or marketing campaign.
We have been building that foundation since launching our Engineered for Whatever marketing platform last August and relaunching Columbia.com last September. Earlier this year, we began amplifying our mid-funnel marketing engine with more targeted marketing, increased influencer partnerships, and creative activations. Our full-funnel marketing strategy is reaching our target consumers and materially improving the sell-through of our featured products.
Together, these efforts provide strong indications that the strategy is gaining traction and increase our confidence that we’re on the right track. A key theme underlying our third quarter performance is the momentum we’re building in fleece. We’re thrilled with the sell-through we are seeing across multiple franchises. A major highlight within this category has been our Helvetia Fleece, a style that first launched in 1991. This fall, we offered the Helvetia in several new bold colorways and prints, bringing new energy to an iconic legacy product which appealed to younger, targeted consumers.
Additionally, to celebrate Helvetia’s heritage and lean into the current ’90s nostalgia, we launched our Fax for Fleece campaign in early September. Featuring a 1991-era fax machine, we challenged consumers through social media channels to be among the first 91 people to send us a fax—if they could actually find a fax machine—in order to receive a free fleece. The energy and engagement created by this campaign for both the Helvetia and the Columbia brand was incredible.
To our surprise, we received over 8,000 faxes, far exceeding our expectations. This energy has extended beyond the Fax for Fleece campaign. Our new MTR fleece, a more premium style launched this fall, has seen strong early demand. Columbia fleece has even been positively trending on TikTok as of late. Earlier this month, we launched a special edition of our Helvetia featuring the iconic PDX Airport colored carpet. It sold out within minutes online, and consumers lined up around the block at our Portland flagship store.
Earlier this week, we launched our latest campaign with our Don’t Panic Room contest. Similar to our highly successful Expedition Impossible campaign, we are challenging consumers to submit videos, this time highlighting their survival skills. The winner will receive the actual Don’t Panic Room bunker. It’s been modified as a shipping container, and it’s filled with essentials needed to survive anything that Mother Nature throws at you. The Don’t Panic Room includes spacious living quarters, non-perishable supplies, and, most importantly, plenty of Columbia gear.
We are seeing the momentum created by our innovative products and marketing translate into stronger marketplace positioning. The Amaze Puff, launched in fall ’25, continues to resonate with our target female consumers and retail partners alike. After largely selling out last fall, it’s among our top sellers and biggest growth drivers for fall ’26. With an expanded variety of styles and colorways, that product story will have prominent visibility within elevated retail spaces.
For example, in Q4, the Amaze is being featured in dozens of Dick’s Sporting Goods House of Sport doors and in Macy’s flagship Herald Square door in New York City. Beyond the Amaze Puff, we’re highly encouraged by the momentum in products primarily designed for and marketed to our younger target consumers and especially women. Among newer products, Amaze sweats introduced this year are already among our top-selling women’s pants. We are seeing momentum in established and refreshed styles as well.
This includes the men’s Roc Pant, a legacy style that we redesigned and relaunched last year targeting the dynamic active consumer. The Sienna Hill jacket, a legacy women’s style, also sold through exceptionally well in Q3, supported by strong mid-funnel marketing. We’re also excited by the momentum we see building in PFG, or Performance Fishing Gear. The PFG team is doing a phenomenal job of connecting with its target consumers and communities. We have renewed our focus on brand-enhancing specialty accounts and engaged in over 40 events and activations year to date, with several more planned throughout year-end. In Q3, we continued bringing energy to the 30th anniversary of our iconic Bahama shirt, including a collaboration with country music superstar Luke Combs that drove strong engagement for the brand.
In June, we launched the Terminal Tech performance apparel line. It features our proprietary Omni-Shade and Omni-Wick innovations, providing all-day sun protection, breathability, and comfort on the water. Terminal Tech largely sold out during Q3, and it’s a key driver of our growth in PFG’s spring ’27 order book. Another key growth driver for PFG in Q3 and spring ’27 is the Dry Tortuga boot. It contributed to another solid quarter of growth for Columbia brand Footwear, which was up mid-single-digits percent in Q3 overall. Importantly, this growth was led by more premium styles featuring our proprietary Omni-Max technology such as the Peakfreak and the Tellurx families in hike and the Konos in trail running. A major highlight for our footwear business in Q3 was the continued success of our sponsored athletes on the trail, further demonstrating that our trail running product is capable of performing at the highest levels of the sport.
In August, Columbia athlete Gabriel Rolanda placed 20th at the UTMB Finals in Chamonix, France. The 108-mile race around Mont Blanc is considered to be the world’s most prestigious and competitive trail running event. And last month, longtime athlete Yassine Diboun claimed a spot on the podium in the Mammoth 200 in California, where he took third place in his first career 200-miler. Competing for over 60 hours, his Columbia Konos trail running footwear propelled him through the rugged terrain while his Columbia apparel kept him protected and comfortable through a wide variety of challenging conditions.
Big congrats to our athletes and product teams, who continue to demonstrate that Columbia truly owns the trail. Turning back to third quarter financial performance, net sales increased 2% to $963 million, driven by growth in international markets, partially offset by a modest decline in the U.S. From a channel perspective, our DTC business grew 5% globally, including 9% growth in e-commerce and 4% growth in brick-and-mortar. Our wholesale business was relatively flat versus the prior year. This primarily reflected double-digit percent growth in Asia Direct wholesale and EMEA region distributors, offset by unfavorable shipment timing from supply chain delays impacting the U.S. and Europe direct wholesale.
That said, these delays had less impact on Q3 net sales than we anticipated when we provided guidance three months ago. Wholesale delivery timing was the primary driver of upside versus our Q3 revenue guidance, followed by stronger-than-expected U.S. DTC performance. Third quarter gross margin declined 20 basis points to 49.8% on a reported basis. This includes a 50-basis-point headwind from accommodations to our factory partners, net of tariff refunds recognized in the quarter.
Excluding this impact, underlying gross margins expanded 30 basis points, primarily due to lower DTC freight costs. SG&A expenses declined 1%, primarily reflecting lower corporate overhead costs on disciplined expense management and some shift of planned marketing spend to the fourth quarter. This was partly offset by higher incentive compensation accruals and DTC expenses. The result was SG&A leverage of 140 basis points compared to the prior year, leading to the operating margin of 11.4%.
As a reminder, our Q3 ’25 operating income included $29 million in one-time impairment charges. Excluding this prior-year impact, our underlying operating margin expanded by 120 basis points. This overall performance resulted in reported EPS of $1.66 compared to $0.95 in the prior year. Inventories increased 11% versus the prior year in dollar terms, with units up 10%. This growth primarily reflects higher in-transit inventory from delayed fall ’26 receipts.
Overall inventory composition remains healthy. We continue to maintain our fortress balance sheet, exiting the quarter with $230 million in cash and short-term investments and no debt. Looking at net sales by geography, U.S. net sales decreased 1%, reflecting later wholesale shipment timing, partially offset by growth in DTC. Wholesale net sales declined low-single-digit percent. DTC net sales grew low-single-digit percent, with brick-and-mortar up low single digits and e-commerce growing mid single digits. For my review of third quarter year-over-year net sales growth in international geographies, I will reference constant currency growth rates to illustrate underlying performance in each market.
EMEA net sales increased 7% overall. Europe Direct net sales increased low-single-digit percent, driven by strong double-digit percent growth in DTC despite unfavorable weather and a challenging macro environment. This was partially offset by decline in wholesale, reflecting fall ’26 supply chain delays. The Europe team continues doing an incredible job of connecting with our target consumers, particularly on the trail. Our Hike Society events in Q3 remain highly popular and continue to sell out, driving energy and awareness for our brand.
Key highlights in the quarter included full-funnel marketing campaigns around the launches of our Peakfreak 3 hiking shoe and our Street Tech apparel line. Street Tech is an exciting new collection representing the evolution of outdoor sportswear, remixing technical outdoor function into streetwear-led styles for a youth audience. Street Tech launched recently and was sold into some of our leading partners such as JD Sports, Zalando, and ASOS. Early indications show high consumer engagement and strong sell-through with the target demographic.
Our EMEA distributor business grew in the high-30% range, primarily reflecting fall ’26 shipment timing versus the prior year, which more heavily weighted Q2. Key growth drivers included hike, supported by Columbia Hike Society events sponsored in several countries. We also saw strong growth and sell-through in Outdoor Lifestyle, driven by fleece and the Roc Pant, as well as in PFG. LAAP net sales increased 10%. China net sales grew low-teens percent, reflecting growth across channels amid a challenging macro and competitive environment. The China team continues to do a great job of increasing its share of business with younger consumers, connecting with local communities through Columbia Hike Society and Outdoor Club events. A key highlight included our Hike Party 3.0, a first-of-its-kind activation for the launch of our new Railway Rambler Interchange Jacket.
The event combined hiking, fishing, and kayaking and attracted millions of impressions on social channels, with hundreds of thousands of viewers tuning in to the live stream. We were also pleased with successful campaigns featuring our Peakfreak hiking footwear and our China-exclusive Transit apparel line. Japan net sales increased low double-digit percent, with growth across channels reflecting healthy demand for fall season products. Key product drivers included women’s pants, Konos footwear, and rainwear, which was helped by unusually rainy and cool conditions during September.
Korea net sales increased high-teens percent, driven by strong wholesale growth reflecting a higher fall ’26 order book. Key drivers in the quarter included the Helvetia fleece, trending lightweight down styles, and BOA footwear styles. These were supported by elevated in-store presentations and a successful fall campaign leveraging the Engineered for Whatever global brand platform. Our LAAP distributor markets declined low-single-digit percent, primarily reflecting earlier fall shipment timing that landed in Q2 versus the prior year.
Canada net sales were relatively flat overall. This primarily reflected the decline in wholesale sales due to supply chain delays leading to later shipments versus the prior year. This was offset by growth in DTC, particularly e-commerce. Key growth drivers in the quarter included the Amaze collection, hiking footwear, and fleece. Our Canada team also continues to find unique ways to engage new, younger consumers. For example, we sponsored a hike in Q3 to the top of Mount Tremblant, capped off with a yoga class on the summit.
We also held an event at the Toronto International Film Festival, connecting and introducing our brand and products to numerous influencers and cultural tastemakers. Looking at third quarter performance by brand, Columbia net sales increased 3%, reflecting high-single-digit percent growth in DTC and relatively flat wholesale sales. Turning now to our emerging brands, as a reminder, each of these brands derive a significant majority of their revenue from the U.S. marketplace. Sorel net sales increased 2%, primarily driven by growth in wholesale on stronger fall ’26 orders. A key highlight for Sorel in the quarter was the launch of the Ambler, a new franchise rooted in the iconic style of the Caribou boot.
The Ambler has seen encouraging sell-through in DTC e-commerce to date, supported by creative full-funnel marketing activations, collaborations, and influencer partnerships. prAna net sales declined 1%, primarily reflecting lower DTC e-commerce sales largely due to the late arrival of fall ’26 inventory. This was partially offset by growth in wholesale and DTC brick-and-mortar. A key highlight was the opening earlier this month of its fourth branded store in Burlingame, California.
With fall ’26 products now fully in stock, we expect prAna to rebound with a stronger Q4. Mountain Hardwear net sales declined 17% year over year, primarily reflecting lower fall ’26 wholesale orders and closeout sales. While it was a challenging quarter overall for Mountain Hardwear, a bright spot was the strong U.S. wholesale growth in full-price outerwear. This was driven by our new patent-pending StretchDown innovation, Doppelweave, which provides both flexible warmth and unrestricted movement.
Additionally, Mountain Hardwear’s new lifestyle line, Hardware Supply, launched in fall ’26 in DTC e-commerce and REI doors. It contributed to growth in e-commerce for the quarter with strong sell-through to date. We were thrilled to announce last month that Peter Rauch has assumed the role of President of Mountain Hardwear. Peter is a highly experienced and respected leader who has been with the Columbia family for nearly 20 years in different leadership roles.
Most recently, Peter was the GM of the Columbia brand’s North America region, leading the business through the initial phase of the Accelerate growth strategy. Peter also previously spent several years leading our Asia Direct businesses. He brings deep knowledge of our industry and consumers, a track record of delivering business results, and a genuine passion for the outdoors. Mountain Hardwear continues to have tremendous growth potential, and we’re confident Peter is the right leader to guide Mountain Hardwear into its next chapter.
We’re also pleased that Troy Sycotte, Mountain Hardwear’s President for the past five years, will remain with the brand. As Global Vice President of Sales, Troy played a pivotal role in strengthening the brand and building a strong foundation for future success. His deep industry expertise and strong retailer partnerships position him well to help drive the brand’s next phase of growth and success. With Peter moving to Mountain Hardwear, Columbia brand President Joe Boyle is being supported by a strong bench of leaders within our North America DTC and wholesale businesses.
We’ll now discuss our financial outlook for 4Q ’26 and the full year. This outlook and commentary include forward-looking statements. Please see our CFO commentary and Financial Review presentation for additional details and disclosures related to those statements. For the fourth quarter, we anticipate sales growth of 3.5% to 7%. We expect fourth quarter EPS to be in the range of $1.85 to $2.10. This brings our full-year sales outlook to a revised range of up 2% to 3% versus the prior year and brings our full-year EPS guidance to a range of $4.65 to $4.90 on a reported basis.
We continue to expect full-year reported gross margins of 52.1% to 52.3% on a reported basis, or up 160 to 180 basis points versus the prior year. As a reminder, this includes a roughly 180-basis-point benefit from tariff refunds, net of accommodations to factory partners. We now expect that SG&A will represent 43.8% to 44% of net sales, increasing slightly year over year but at a slower rate than the net sales growth. Based on these assumptions, we anticipate reported operating margins in the range of 8.7% to 9.1% for the year.
Now I’ll provide an early update on our 2027 outlook. While we intend to provide full-year 2027 guidance on our Q4 call, we’re currently forecasting wholesale growth in the mid-single-digit percent range both in the U.S. and globally for 1H ’27. This is supported by our wholesale spring order book, which improved from low- to mid-single-digit growth since our last call. In closing, I’m highly encouraged by our Q3 results amid dynamic and challenging market conditions. From a consumer standpoint, it’s been just over 13 months since we launched our Accelerate growth strategy into the marketplace. This quarter’s performance provides us with further proof points and greater confidence that our strategy is gaining traction. At the same time, I’m even more excited about the opportunity that we have ahead of us and that we will continue to work to elevate the Columbia brand and improve consumers’ perceptions in the U.S. There is still significant room for improvement. I’m confident that we have the strategies in place, combined with our talented and energized global workforce, to return our business to a path of long-term sustainable growth. That concludes my prepared remarks. Operator, can you help us with the questions?
OPERATOR
Certainly. Everyone, at this time we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone at this time. We do ask that while posing your question, please pick up your handset if you’re listening on speakerphone to provide optimum sound quality. Also, we ask each participant to limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Once again, if you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone.
Your first question is coming from Jonathan Komp from Baird. Your line is live.
Jonathan Komp (Analyst)
Yeah, great. Good afternoon. I want to follow up on the encouraging improvement you’re seeing in the U.S. D2C performance and really want to ask if you see that trend continuing here going forward and some of the drivers that get you excited here. And the commentary on 2027 orders, do you think that relates to the positive D2C performance resulting in stronger orders from some of your partners? Any other color there would be helpful.
Tim Boyle (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Certainly. Well, e-commerce for Columbia Sportswear is just one part of our Accelerate system that we’re using to make the business better. And I would say if you took a look at our website and ancillary items on the site, by comparison to last year to this year, you’d see a dramatic difference in how the garments appear, how the footwear appears. We really made a distinct effort to make our e-commerce business the pinnacle of the Columbia brand, where it has the most and best recommendations.
So if we talk about the success, it’s really a function of better traffic, more traffic as a result of our Accelerate activities, and then once consumers are there on the site, better conversion and really a better environment and a better experience for consumers. So that’s really how we’re seeing the improvements in North American e-commerce. As it relates to our spring to our ’27 business, the spring ’27 order book just continued to strengthen and that’s based on a number of factors. I think likely the continued exposure of our various activations and marketing efforts as it relates to Accelerate, and we’re just now starting to sell fall ’27. So our expectations are quite buoyed, and I’m expecting that we’re going to see great things.
Jonathan Komp (Analyst)
That’s great to hear. And then maybe, Jim, if I could follow up thinking through a bit more just directionally, some of the cost factors into 2027. You’ll be cycling the refunds. Certainly in an inflationary environment broadly, do you think SG&A becomes a lever that you intend to pull a little more aggressively to drive underlying margin expansion? Any other color there would be helpful. Thank you.
Jim Swanson (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah, thanks for the question, John. Certainly we’re not looking to provide any forward-looking guidance as we look out to next year. Not unlike this year, we would fully expect that we’re able to leverage the SG&A line, all dependent upon how we come in ultimately on a full-year basis from a revenue growth standpoint. And then I would emphasize just a couple points as it relates to the gross margin. One, I think you nailed a good point in terms of adjusting for the tariff refund net of the factory accommodations that we’ve realized this year to the tune of about 180 basis points. Beyond that, it’s really difficult, and we’re in the midst of our planning process right now. There’s obviously a lot of uncertainty as we look ahead as it relates specifically to whether there’s any additional tariffs imposed by the administration.
Certainly there are product input cost pressures that will increasingly impact us in the latter part of next year. We are taking surgical price increases where we can to help mitigate those. So those are among the factors we’re looking at. But going beyond that, providing specific guidance, we can’t do that today.
Jonathan Komp (Analyst)
That’s very helpful. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Your next question is coming from Bob Durbal from BTIG. Your line is live.
Bob Durbal (Analyst)
Hi, good afternoon. A couple questions just on the Q3, Q4 for a second. So when you guys look at the inventory levels, the in-transit situation coming out of the second quarter into the third quarter, has everything normalized now as you think about what you’re seeing? And within the Q4 outlook, have you seen any material order cancellations or changes to the fall ’26 order book around the business?
Jim Swanson (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Yes. So, Bob, as it relates to the in-transit inventory, that’s primarily now been delivered to our various distribution centers and is on its way if it has not already been received by our customers. So that bit of logistics issues we believe is behind us. As it relates to Q4, we get orders every day, we get cancels every day, but there’s no meaningful change in anything that we’ve seen from the order book perspective. And we run a global business. It’s highly complex. And so we’ve given you the best advice that we can and guidance about where we believe that Q4 will end up.
I think one other point, Bob, as it relates to the inventory side of the equation, as Tim touched on, I think we’re well resourced to fulfill the remaining demand that we’ve got for fall ’26 coming in the fourth quarter. A big chunk of the increase in our inventory at the end of the quarter and what we’re now projecting at the end of the year: we have accelerated our spring ’27 production in light of longer logistics lead times. So just one thing to keep in mind as you think about the overall growth in our inventory, it’s really current future-season inventory and it’s timing-related.
Bob Durbal (Analyst)
And I guess just as you think about where we are in the fourth quarter right now, do you see elevated risk with weather or anything as it relates to especially your wholesale business, Tim?
Tim Boyle (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Well, nothing out of the ordinary, Bob. You know our business is highly reactionary to weather, and so we’re going to continue to watch it, but we have no expectations that it is going to be anything other than a normal winter. Thank you very much.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Your next question is coming from Peter McGoldrick from Stifel. Your line is live.
Peter McGoldrick (Analyst)
Hey, guys, thanks for taking my question. I wanted to dive in on the order book for spring/summer ’27. I was hoping you could help us think through the relative regional momentum compared to what we’re seeing in the second half of 2026. And how should we be thinking about the split of growth drivers between volume, price, and mix?
Jim Swanson (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah. As it relates to the—first and foremost, I’d say we’re awfully encouraged by where the spring ’27 order book has come in. Ninety days ago, we had indicated to you that that was up a low single-digit to mid single-digit percentage. As Tim touched on, the order book continues to come in over the course of the past couple months, and with what visibility we have, we anticipate first-half wholesale growth in the mid single-digit range. As you think about that from a geographic standpoint—and I think, encouragingly from our standpoint, another indicator of the work that’s going on from an Accelerate standpoint—that does include low to mid single-digit rate of growth also in our U.S. wholesale business. I think it leans more to the mid single-digit, and continued momentum in our international markets. Our international growth is anticipated to continue to outpace the U.S. side of the business.
So, all in all, we’re quite pleased, and I think it’s another strong indication of the work that’s been going on from an Accelerate standpoint.
Tim Boyle (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah. I want to also point out that footwear growth was larger than the trail growth for us. Very encouraging.
Peter McGoldrick (Analyst)
Very good. Then just on the strategy to recruit more younger active consumers, can you give us an update on anything to support that? Quantify any of the drivers there, and then how that’s influencing the overall engagement with the consumer audience, whether it be price, willingness to spend, or frequency of purchase or traffic patterns with these new dynamic audiences.
Tim Boyle (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, thanks. So as it relates to the consumers we’re seeing in the engagement with Engineering for Whatever campaign, year-over-year improvements we’ve seen in both consideration and purchase intent among our target audiences on the professional leads and the dynamic actives, and new customer growth in e-commerce with an increasing share of the business coming from those target audiences, is really showing momentum in the Accelerate strategy as it relates to consumers.
Peter McGoldrick (Analyst)
Very good. Thank you.
Tim Boyle (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Peter.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Our next question is coming from Mitch Kumit from Seaport Research. Your line is live.
Mitch Kumit (Analyst)
Yeah, thanks for taking my questions. I guess, first question, I just want to ask maybe Bob’s question a different way. Tim, when you look at your retail partners, how do you think they’re feeling about the winter season today, just kind of given what early sell-through trends have been as well as kind of where channel inventory currently stands?
Tim Boyle (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Well, we’ve been very successful on the merchandise that we’ve delivered, and it’s been selling through, especially in the Amaze collection and as well our fleece offering. I think the fleece offerings are dramatically improving in terms of the sell-through. Some of that is the emphasis we’ve had under our Accelerate, where we focused heavily on this product called the Helvetia, which is a 1991 garment that we’ve been selling since that period, and we really revitalized it through some activations as well as new colorways, et cetera.
So I think consumers, and especially retailers, are very excited about what’s happening with the business. They see the unusual and, I would say, differentiating activations we’ve done around Flat Earth and about the Don’t Panic Room, which just launched yesterday, and it’s changing their perceptions of Columbia as a brand. And I think we’re very excited about the future.
Jim Swanson (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Mitch, I would just add that I think coming into the season, retailers were exceptionally clean on their inventory positions. And then as it relates to the outlook that we provide, I think we provide an adequate range of outcome for a variety of different weather conditions.
Mitch Kumit (Analyst)
Okay. And then my follow-up question for you, Jim: in terms of the sales and EBIT beat in the third quarter, how much of that was related to shifts in sales and spending versus planning versus just overdelivery in the quarter? And on the overdelivery, what really drove that, if you had to sort of pinpoint it? And then I guess maybe just the last part of this question: Are there any shifts contemplated in the fourth quarter outlook—shifts going from 4Q into 1Q ’27?
Jim Swanson (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah, far less on the latter piece. I don’t think we’ve got any meaningful timing differences between Q4 and Q1. As it relates to the third quarter, the beat from a revenue standpoint—certainly the lion’s share of that related to timing. If we’ve got a revenue beat that’s in the $25 million range, call it $20 million of that is related to better wholesale shipments, and then the balance would be the D2C business. So I think the key to all of that, Mitch, would be: one, yeah, we were able to deliver a bit earlier than we’d expected coming into the quarter; but I think importantly in all of this, as you look at the underlying trends in our U.S. business, particularly the D2C and e-commerce channel, we were awfully encouraged by a notable change. And I think that’s the collective efforts of what Joe and his team have done over the better part of the last year from an Accelerate standpoint, and that all coming together.
So nice to see those overall changes.
Mitch Kumit (Analyst)
Okay, great. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Your next question is coming from Laurent Vasilescu from BNP Paribas. Your line is live.
Laurent Vasilescu (Analyst)
Oh, good afternoon. Thank you very much for taking my question. I wanted to follow up on your China number. I think last quarter China on a constant currency basis grew mid-single digits, and this quarter, a little step up here, low teens. Curious to know, I know your business is humming there, but I’m curious to know what you’re seeing in the environment there. It seems like it’s just a challenged environment, but it seems like at the same time you’re improving that business.
And how do we think about—I know you don’t guide explicitly for China on a full-year basis—but can we kind of see that momentum continue low double digits into the fourth quarter?
Jim Swanson (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah, I could take that, Laurent, as it relates to China and looking at the execution of that marketplace. And, you know, there was some acceleration, as you noted, from Q2 into Q3. I think we would attribute that to the local marketplace strategies and the execution around that. I think our China team has done an exceptional job. I think we would also acknowledge that the macro environment in China, you know, it’s challenging. I think it’s gotten incrementally more challenging during the quarter. I think the competitive nature of what’s going on there is also holding to be true in terms of just increased competition. And, you know, I think our team’s doing a great job in executing in an otherwise difficult marketplace and taking some market share.
As we look out to the fourth quarter, I don’t have the specifics on China, but I think we continue to forecast on a full-year basis that we would see double-digit percent level growth in China. So really happy with what we’re seeing there.
Laurent Vasilescu (Analyst)
Very good, thank you, Jim, on that. And then in your CFO commentary, I know you reiterated your gross margin, but within the fine bullet points, I noticed you mentioned higher incremental U.S. tariffs. I’m just curious, like what was—what’s your assumption on tariffs because we’re so close to the end of the year? I’m just curious to know what was driving that as a source of pressure for the balance of the year since we really don’t have any news from the White House.
And then on the flip side, I noticed that you removed higher DTC promotions as a headwind. So I’m just curious to know those puts and takes, if you can unpack that for the audience. Thank you.
Jim Swanson (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah, good question. As it relates to the higher incremental U.S. tariffs that’s noted in our gross margin outlook, frankly, that probably should have been there previously. And essentially what that is, when you look on a year-on-year basis, this year we’ve gotten a full year’s impact of the incremental tariffs, albeit rates have been changing throughout the year, whereas last year the tariffs really didn’t start coming into place until midway through the third quarter and then the fourth quarter.
So it’s just a year-on-year comparison. The offset to that is the high single-digit price increases that we implemented for both Spring ’26 and Fall ’26. So effectively those two things are neutralizing each other. And then with regard to the removal of the slight headwind as it relates to DTC promotions, yeah, I think there’s—dependent upon geography and brand—you know, there’s certainly some promotional activity out there. China would be, I think, an example of that. We saw a little of that in Europe as well.
But then the counter to it, as well as you’ve seen, is we’ve had better full-price realization within our DTC e-commerce business and we are making a very concerted effort and decision to pull back on those promotion levels. So those are more or less offsetting. That’s the reason why you’re not seeing that appear in the overall gross margin bridge.
Laurent Vasilescu (Analyst)
Very helpful. Thank you very much and best of luck for the rest of the year.
Jim Swanson (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Thank you.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Your next question is coming from Mauricio Cerna from UBS. Your line is live.
Mauricio Cerna (Analyst)
Great. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking our questions. I wanted to ask, you know, I think, you know, on the fourth quarter outlook, you’re guiding to 3.5% to 7% growth. Just wanted to make sure, is there like an impact from shipments? I don’t know if you quantified that. If you could tell us if there’s an impact on Q4 sales growth outlook from that front. Anyway, on the DTC part in the U.S., you know, it’s nice to see that inflection to positive. Anyway, how you’re thinking about that business in Q4—like, are you thinking that that business can sustain, you know, that positive growth across both channels? Thank you.
Jim Swanson (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah, Rudy, appreciate the question. As it relates to the timing shift between Q3 and Q4, it’s about a $30 million shift. And so for each of the two quarters, it’s in the 2.5 to 3 percentage points impact to revenue growth. So keep that in mind as a component of what you’re seeing as a 3.5% to 7%. If you adjust for that in both quarters… And then as it pertains to the direct-to-consumer business in the fourth quarter, we’ve planned that business more or less in line with what we realized in Q3.
So if you look at our DTC brick-and-mortar business being up 4% in the third quarter, we’re more or less planning at a commensurate level in the fourth quarter. E-commerce business, I think we plan slightly more aggressively. We finished high single-digit—what, 8%, 9%—growth in Q3. We’ve got a plan to take that to the low double-digit percent level for the fourth quarter, and that would be somewhat indicative of the improvement that we saw in the trend in that part of our business throughout the third quarter, in the exit rate.
So we feel good about the outlook that we’re providing here today from an overall top line perspective.
Mauricio Cerna (Analyst)
Got it. And if I could just have a quick follow-up on—just, I know you haven’t given guidance for next year, but is the right way to think about the 2027 gross margin just take out the 180 basis points of the refund and then layer in things like freight, raw material, and, I guess, like promos? Is the right way to think about it, like flattish year over year? Thank you.
Jim Swanson (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah, really tough to provide any indication on that. I mean, yes, as it relates to adjusting for the tariff refunds and the factory accommodations, but going above and beyond that in terms of all different variables on promotional and markdown activity, where we’re taking pricing, the product input cost pressure—there’s a lot of variables there. We’re in the middle of our planning process, and, you know, we look forward to providing an update on that in February at our year-end call.
Mauricio Cerna (Analyst)
Appreciate it.
Jim Swanson (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
Thank you so much.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Our next question is coming from Tom Nikic from Needham. Your line is live.
Tom Nikic (Analyst)
Hey guys, thanks for taking my question. Wanted to ask about the progress you’ve made on the Accelerate strategy. And I’m kind of curious—things like product and marketing, are they where you want to get them to? Is there still kind of more progress to be made on improving the product or improving the marketing? Just kind of curious where we stand there.
Joe Boyle (Co-President)
Yeah, thanks for the question. This is Joe Boyle. You know, Accelerate’s a long-term strategy, so we’re very encouraged with, you know, some of the momentum we’re seeing, particularly around our consumer focus and being able to reach them with the marketing, which I’ll remind—Engineer for Whatever—is just a little more than a year old. So we’re making a lot of progress with Engineer for Whatever, targeting the consumer. And then as it relates to the product, you know, both focusing on new products that we’ve designed and developed around these consumer segments like the Amaze Puff, MTR Fleece, Helvetia Fleece, which is really a new product for a lot of these new consumers, even though it’s a reincarnation of a classic product that we have. And, you know, even in footwear, as we look at the products we’re making specifically around attracting consumers through Accelerate, a lot of progress being made there in footwear across the board and particularly in products focused with Omni-Max as well.
Tom Nikic (Analyst)
Very helpful. Thanks very much and best of luck this holiday season.
OPERATOR
Thank you. That concludes our Q&A session. I’ll now hand the conference back to Tim Boyle for closing remarks. Please go ahead.
Tim Boyle (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Operator, and thanks everyone who joined the call today. I’d like to close the call by thanking our global workforce for their continued commitment and strong performance through the first nine months of this year. Like Mother Nature, the global business environment can be volatile and unpredictable. So far this year, we’ve navigated tariff uncertainty, geopolitical conflicts, soaring energy costs, and supply chain disruptions. Through it all, our teams have weathered the storm, focused on what we can control, and positioned us to achieve the upper half of our initial 2026 sales and earnings guidance.
As usual, our fourth quarter performance will remain critical to achieving our full-year goals. Despite what you’ve heard, winter is coming and we’re ready for it. Wish all of you and your families a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to updating you on our progress again in a few months. Thanks.
OPERATOR
Thank you everyone. This concludes today’s event. You may disconnect at this time and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.
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