Frances Lyons

SPT-608-Q3401 Sport Marketing and Media 21TW3

Professor Wilkins

February 28, 2021

Name and describe

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The apparel company Under Armour will be the potential focus of my final marketing

plan. Under Armour is an apparel company that creates athletic apparel and shoes for men,

women, and children. Under Armour is not a company that focuses on labels but their athletes.

Under Armour, the mission is to make all athletes better through passion, design, and the

relentless pursuit of innovation (UA, 2021). Under Armour was founded in 1996 by Kevin

Plank, and it was a t-shirt that started it all. According to Under Armour, the shirt was unlike

anything that was on the market. The shirt kept athletes cool, dry, and light. Kevin Plank realized

the compression shorts he was wear will much dryer than the shirt he was wearing. Under

Armour was the first company to have a shirt made of synthetic fabric that would absorb

moisture, also known as the “Moisture-wicking” compression shirt. While working from his

grandmother's basement in Washington D.C., he traveled up and down the East Coast selling his

innovative new product out of the trunk of his car. Under Armour landed its first deal with

Georiga Tech University (Barrabi, 2020).

The company beginning to explore a few other forms of sports apparel. Strong marketing

campaigns are what help attract new consumers to the Under Armour brand and showed what

made the apparel better and more unique than other companies. For example, Under Armour

began giving out free shirts to NFL football players to test out (Hum, 2020). Not long after that,

the company began landing deals with teams such as the Atlanta Falcons, New York Giants, and

the Miami Dolphins. Under Armour not only gained interest from the NFL but the NHL teams

too and became the official apparel supplier of the NHL (Barrabi, 2020). In 2005, the apparel

company went public and by 2010 the company earned 1 billion in annual sales. The use of

professional and amateur sportspeople was Under Armour’s key and most successful marketing

strategy (Pafitis, 2020).

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Justify

Even though Under Armour saw major success in the early 2000’s, it was still not been

able to gain true success such as Nike and Adidas (top leading sports apparel companies). The

company sales are currently struggling in North America. Just last quarter website and store

sales, along with outside retailers saw declines (Valinsky, 2019). Currently, Under Armour is

predicting low sales in the quarters ahead. The struggles of the company sales have also cause

CEO Kevin Plank to step down. This move allows for Plank to focus on the brands’ ecosystem

through a strategic, operational, and cultural transformation, and long-term strategy (Valinsky,

2019). Besides trying to win over the Nike and Adidas customers, there have also been issues

with the company culture. Former employees have revealed that they were able to charge strip

club visits on their company corporate cards. According to Horowitz and Meyersohn, former

executives reveal that Plank and executives would attend strip clubs with athletes. This has

caused an uproar in the women’s sports market community because of the distaste and it

demands the partnership Under Armour had with their professional athletes such as ballerina

Misty Copeland and ski racer Lindsey Vonn (Horowitz and Meyersohn, 2018). This issue calls

for a new marketing plan for Under Armour. Things are changing and companies like Nike and

Adidas will continue to see success and outdo Under Armour if changes aren’t made fast.

References

Barrabi, T. (2020, June 23). How Under Armour was founded. Fox Business.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/retail/how-under-armour-was-founded

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Hum, S. (2020, June 5). 4 Ways How Under Armour Grew To Steal Adidas’ #2 Spot. Word-of-

Mouth and Referral Marketing Blog. https://www.referralcandy.com/blog/under-armour-

marketing-strategy/

Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business. (2019, October 22). Under Armour Founder Kevin Plank is

stepping down as CEO. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/22/business/under-armour-kevin-

plank-ceo/index.html

Horowitz. J and Meyersohn. N, CNN Business. (2018, November 6). Under Armour tells

employees Journal report on culture was “tough to read.” CNN.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/05/business/under-armour-strip-club-report/index.html

UA. (2021, January 27). Under Amour Mission Statement 2021 | Under Amour Mission & Vision

Analysis. Under Armour. https://mission-statement.com/under-armour/

Our Story. (2021). UA Newsroom. https://about.underarmour.com/brand/our-story

Pafitis, E. (2020, September 30). What Can Be Learnt From Under Armour’s Marketing

Strategy? StartingBusiness. https://www.startingbusiness.com/blog/marketing-strategy-under-

armour

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