The outlook appears to be bright for JD Sports, despite the currency headwinds which were credited with sparking a fall in its share price today.

The self-styled ‘King of Trainers’ exceeded market expectations as it reported record interim profits and outlined its hopes for growth in the US following a major acquisition.

It appeared to draw a line under a difficult start to the year for the business when it issued a profit warning amid challenging market conditions.

Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, said the results show demand is still strong for ‘athleisure’ fashion despite the travails at Nike, which withdraw its financial guidance for the year and postponed an investor day as it reported a sharp fall in sales on Tuesday.

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Nike, which announced the appointment of Elliott Hill as president and chief executive on September 19, declared that a “comeback at this scale takes time, but we see early wins - from momentum in key sports to accelerating our pace of newness and innovation”.

JD Sports delivered a bullish assessment of its own performance in the first half as it highlighted success in outperforming the market in a “volatile global marketplace”. The retailer reported revenue growth of 5.2% to £5.032 billion, with profit before tax and adjusting items up 2% to £405.6m.

However, its gross margin dipped to 48.2% from 48.4% amid an increased level of promotional activity. Moreover, its bottom-line profit before tax tumbled by 64.3% to £126.3m, after non-cash one-off items related to its $1.08 billion acquisition of US sportswear retailer Hibbett Inc, which completed before period end, and the closure of its Derby distribution centre.

JD made no bones about the significance of the Hibbett deal to its hopes across the Atlantic, which are also likely to be boosted by becoming Nike’s first global retail partner for the Nike Connected loyalty programme.

“Cracks in the athleisure market increasingly look like they are more to do with company-specific problems than an industry losing momentum,” Mr Coatsworth said.

“JD Sports’ better than expected first-half profit shows that demand is still robust for trainers and tracksuits. In contrast, Nike’s struggles have gone from bad to worse as its first quarter results were riddled with problems of its own making.”

He added: “The beauty of JD’s model is that it isn’t reliant on a single brand to do well. Instead, it stocks a range of brands, from On and Adidas to Hoka and Converse, and that gives it flexibility to capitalise on the most in-demand products. That puts a greater emphasis on Nike to improve relationships with JD and ensure its shoes still have pride of place on the shelf.”