These strengths were evident in our third quarter results with revenue up 8%, gross margin up 310 basis points to a record 51% and solid adjusted earnings per share performance at $0.31.
Let's turn next to our regions, starting with North America, where revenue was up 8% to $1 billion, indicative of improving brand health in our largest market, we had stronger-than-expected back-to-school and direct-to-consumer demand.
Compared to 2019, North American revenue was up 2% in the third quarter.
Revenue in our Asia Pacific region was up 19%, driven primarily by wholesale growth.
We attribute this to the investments we're making into marketing, CRM and store expansions, including opening our 1,000th store in the region.
Versus 2019, third quarter APAC revenue was up 37%, so solid progress on a two year stack.
Next up is EMEA, where revenue was up 15%, driven by wholesale, which saw continued momentum from our distributor partnerships and a solid direct-to-consumer performance.
Versus 2019, third quarter revenue in EMEA was up 50%.
And finally, our Latin America region was up 27%, driven by strength in our full-price wholesale and distributor businesses.
Versus 2019, third quarter revenue in Latin America was up 8%.
Another highlight is the performance of our direct-to-consumer business, which was up 12%.
Versus 2019, direct-to-consumer was up 31% for the third quarter.
Compared to the prior year, revenue was up 8% to $1.5 billion.
Third quarter wholesale revenue was up 10%, driven by higher-than-expected demand in our full-price business, particularly in North American wholesale, which was tempered by a reduction in sales to the off-price channel as we continue to work to elevate our brand positioning.
Our direct-to-consumer business increased 12%, led by 21% growth in our owned and operated retail stores, partially offset by a 4% decline in e-commerce, which faced a difficult comparison to last year's third quarter.
But I would also note that when compared to the third quarter of 2019, our e-commerce business was up over 50%.
And licensing revenue was up 24%, driven by improving strength within our North American partner businesses.
By product type, apparel revenue was up 14% with strength across all categories, particularly in train and golf.
Footwear was up 10%, driven primarily by strength in running.
And our accessories business was down 13% due to lower sales of our sports masks compared to last year's third quarter.
Relative to gross margin, our third quarter improved 310 basis points over last year, landing at 51%.
This expansion was driven by 400 basis points of pricing improvements due primarily to lower promotional activity within our DTC channel, along with lower promotions and markdowns within our wholesale business and 120 basis points of benefit due to channel mix, primarily related to lower mix of off-price sales versus last year's third quarter.
Partially offsetting these improvements was about 100 basis points of negative impact related to the absence of MyFitnessPal and 90 basis points of negative impacts from higher freight and logistics costs due to COVID-related supply chain pressures.
SG&A expenses were up 8% to $599 million due to increased marketing investments, incentive compensation and nonsalaried workforce wages.
Relative to our 2020 restructuring plan, we recorded $17 million of charges in the third quarter.
So we now expect to recognize total planned charges ranging from $525 million to $575 million.
Thus far, we've realized $500 million of pre-tax restructuring and related charges.
Our third quarter operating income was $172 million.
Excluding restructuring and impairment charges, adjusted operating income was $189 million.
After tax, we realized a net income of $113 million or $0.24 of diluted earnings per share during the quarter.
Excluding restructuring charges, loss on extinguishment of $169 million in principal amount of senior convertible notes and the noncash amortization of debt discount on our senior convertible notes.
Our adjusted net income was $145 million or $0.31 of adjusted diluted earnings per share.
In this respect, we are excited to report that the $0.71 of adjusted diluted earnings per share that we've realized year-to-date has surpassed our highest previous full year split adjusted earnings, thus solid traction and excellent progress.
Inventory was down 21% to $838 million, driven by improvements in our operating model and inbound shipping delays due to COVID-related supply chain pressures.
Our cash and cash equivalents were $1.3 billion at the end of the quarter and we had no borrowings under our $1.1 billion revolving credit facility.
With respect to debt, during the third quarter, we entered into exchange agreements with certain convertible bondholders for $169 million in principal amount of our outstanding convertible notes and terminated certain related cap call transactions.
We utilized net $168 million in cash, issued 7.7 million shares of our Class C stock and recorded a related loss of approximately $24 million, which is captured in other income and expenses.
Following this transaction and our actions in the second quarter, $81 million of convertible notes remain outstanding.
Let's start with revenue, which we now expect to be up approximately 25% for the full year.
On a GAAP basis, we expect the full year rate to be up approximately 130 basis points against our 2020 adjusted gross margin of 48.6%, with benefits from pricing and changes in foreign currency being partially offset by higher expected freight expenses and the sale of MyFitnessPal, which carried a high gross margin rate.
Versus 2020, we now expect that full year SG&A will be up 6% to 7%.
With that, we now expect operating income to reach approximately $425 million this year or $475 million on an adjusted basis.
Translated to rate, we expect to deliver an operating margin of just under 8% or an adjusted operating margin of approximately 8.5% in 2021.
All of this takes us to an expected diluted earnings per share of approximately $0.55 or adjusted diluted earnings per share of approximately $0.74 in 2021, with an average weighted diluted share count of approximately 468 million shares.
And finally, from a balance sheet perspective, we expect to end the year with inventory relatively flat against 2020's year-end and we expect to close the year with approximately $1.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

Summary:
These strengths were evident in our third quarter results with revenue up 8%, gross margin up 310 basis points to a record 51% and solid adjusted earnings per share performance at $0.31.
Compared to the prior year, revenue was up 8% to $1.5 billion.
Relative to gross margin, our third quarter improved 310 basis points over last year, landing at 51%.
After tax, we realized a net income of $113 million or $0.24 of diluted earnings per share during the quarter.
Our adjusted net income was $145 million or $0.31 of adjusted diluted earnings per share.
Inventory was down 21% to $838 million, driven by improvements in our operating model and inbound shipping delays due to COVID-related supply chain pressures.
Let's start with revenue, which we now expect to be up approximately 25% for the full year.
On a GAAP basis, we expect the full year rate to be up approximately 130 basis points against our 2020 adjusted gross margin of 48.6%, with benefits from pricing and changes in foreign currency being partially offset by higher expected freight expenses and the sale of MyFitnessPal, which carried a high gross margin rate.
With that, we now expect operating income to reach approximately $425 million this year or $475 million on an adjusted basis.
All of this takes us to an expected diluted earnings per share of approximately $0.55 or adjusted diluted earnings per share of approximately $0.74 in 2021, with an average weighted diluted share count of approximately 468 million shares.