But the company expects lower growth in the overall market for sporting goods.

"This will be the case especially in Europe, where the market in the first half of the year was dominated by excitement in the run-up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup," Hainer said in a statement. "In Western Europe, growth will return to a more normalized level."

Hainer said Adidas' main challenge would be Britain, but added that new partnerships with Chelsea FC and Liverpool FC would help it increase sales there.

North America was also likely to be a challenge, but growth in Asia was likely to see double-digit sales increases.

Adidas said its activities in the second half of the year will center on the Reebok integration, and that running would be the group's most important category in 2007.

For the first six months of the year, Adidas earned euro226 million (US$290 million) compared with euro171 million in the first half of 2005. Sales for the January-June period rose to euro4.9 billion (US$6.3 billion) from euro3.2 billion.