Under Armour Business Strategy

a. Under Armour’s approach towards innovation is very unique, they think and plan out their projects thoroughly in order to create a one of a kind product that could be appealing to their consumers. The company has been extremely progressive throughout the years in order to stay ahead of the other competitive companies in their targeted industry. By constantly updating and coming up with different product lines, such as compression shirts and cleats, Under Armour is able to compete with other top athletic wear company’s in their market. If

Kevin Plank, the founder of Under Armour sports apparel line is a brilliant businessman. This former college football player started making work-out T-shirts from his grandmother’s basement; seventeen years later, the company is generating billions of dollars in revenue. Kevin Plank has created a brand that is more than just a fancy success story. The Under Armour’s mission in the sporting goods industry is to “make all athletes better through passion, design, and the relentless pursuit of innovation (Thompson, 2014, C-53).” This company is more than just a fancy success story. VIRO Analysis reported, Under Armour has been growing its revenue at a rate of +20% for 5 consecutive years, which is extremely impressive. The company’s financial

Kevin Plank, a former University football player, had a vision to create apparel products for athletes that would be made of a supreme moisture-wicking synthetic fabric. In 1996 after leaving the University of Maryland, he set forth to put his vision to action and in 1996 he founded KP Sports and began to work the phone lines, selling to his teammates straight out of his trunk. KP Sports was ran and operated from Plank’s grandmother’s basement where he ran business on a tight budget. Revenue grew exponentially fast for KP Sports and soon became Under Armour, a multibillion-dollar corporation with sales that came from 6,000 North American retail stores and 2,000 retail stores overseas in 2006. Under Armour strategic growth and management decisions lead them to compete with brands like Nike and Adidas.

Under Armour is a very famous sportswear company in the world. It sold products in three categories: apparel, footwear, and accessories. It had a wide variety of innerwear and outerwear in the apparel segment, a broad line of footwear, and a line of accessories for both men and women. Kevin A. Plank, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Under Armour (UA), was a walk-on special team’s player for University of Maryland football team. As an athlete, he knew what kind of sportswear material would be popular for athletes. Under Armour created a new category of sports apparel: “performance apparel” which focused on the athlete’s performance. In this segment, it had a 78% market in 2009. Because, it paid more attentions on quality, performance

Under Armour, a publicly traded company, was founded in 1996 by its CEO, Kevin Plank. Plank attended the University of Maryland where he played football. He was tired of having to change his cotton shirts over and over again when the football team had multiple practices a day, so he came up with a solution for the cotton shirts. This solution would re-design athletic apparel for the market. Plank designed a t-shirt that was, according to Under Armour (Under Armour), “…engineered with moisture-wicking performance fibers.” This design would help keep athletes cool, dry, and light while training and competing in the heat. Plank started selling his design from the trunk of his car as he drove up and down the East Coast, and his sales sky-rocketed

Therefore, the company worked hard to ensure that all the athletes were better-off through passion, design and relentless pursuit of innovation.

Under Armour is a company started by Kevin Plank in 1996 in a basement. The company went public in 2006 raising a total of $153 million as equity. From a small private company to a multi-billion generating organisation, Under Armour had to overcome numerous challenges including financial difficulties and sales growth. The founder started with premium quality sports clothes and today the company specialises in diverse sportswear and apparel. Through the development of new hi-tech gears, Under Armour, Inc. has been able to penetrate and establish itself in the sports apparel market. It is constantly coming up with new products and adopting innovative strategies to meet the growing needs of its customers as well as to stay ahead of its rivals. A brand which was hardly known a decade ago is today worn by elite athletes in virtually every sports – for instance, Michael Phelps, the Rio Olympic gold medallist, promotes the brand.

In 1995 the then captain of the University of Maryland football team, Kevin Plank came up with a brilliant idea that will revolutionize the athletic apparel industry forever: microfiber T-shirts designed to wick moisture away from the skin. Almost two decades later, Under Armour is a multi billion-dollar athletic apparel market competing directly with industry giants Nike and Adidas.

The industry that will be analyzed in the following paper will be the athletic wear industry. The firm in particular that will be analyzed will be analyzed is Under Armour. Assessing the athletic wear industry using Porter’s 5 forces, New Entrants is the first thing analyzed. The threat of new entrants within the industry is low. It is medium because there are already many well-established brand names; including Nike, Adidas, Rebook, Puma, Champion, Patagonia, and The North Face are just a few examples of these brands. Triefs Under Armour analysis shows these companies can create competition by joining sub industries that Under Armour is involved in that they are not as competitors. Also there is often large capital cost within the industry for branding, advertising and creating demand. When analyzing the rivalry within the industry Under Armour faces , Triefs

The brand lives by its mission statement of “to make all athletes better through passion, design and the relentless pursuit of innovation” and their well-known vision statement of “Empower Athletes, Everywhere.”

Under Armour has come a long way since their basement days in Maryland. After he perfected the design of his initial product, HeatGear, Plank generated $17,000 in sales from a deal with Georgia Tech to supply 500 shirts. His T-shirt was created from microfibers that kept out moisture, allowing athletes to stay dry and comfortable.. Nike and other major brands would eventually following with a parallel approach.

Overall, Under Armour has shocked the business world with its success. Its marketing strategy is a lesson for small up and coming companies (and old companies too) that innovation, quality products and good marketing tools and tactics with a relentless pursuit of goals can reap tremendous

Under Armour is one of the most established sports apparel and accessories producing companies in the world. Under Armour

Founded in 1996 by University of Maryland graduate Kevin Plank, Under Armour has become the leading supplier of the athletic performance apparel industry. Under Armour began with simple idea to create a t-shirt that would enhance athletic performance by regulating body temperature and removing perspiration

Under Armour is currently one of the leading companies in the sports apparel industry whose mission is to “Make all athletes better through passion, science, and the relentless pursuit of innovation”.1 When Under Armour first broke into the sports apparel industry it was a disruptive pioneer that initially made the two giants, Nike and Adidas, a little weary. Under Armour revolutionized the sports apparel industry by creating apparel that used synthetic materials as an alternative to natural fibers, such as cotton, or other materials, such as polyester. This all-important switch to these materials resulted in a 2“shirt that provided compression and wicked perspiration off your skin rather than absorb it. A